• Go grab yourself an ex-eBay staffer, they're on sale

    Mike Butcher

    Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

    Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

    I just got off the phone to an eBay UK spokeman who was a little concerned that my story on Monday implied that three quarters of their UK staff were bing made redundant. I politely pointed out to him that I wrote that three quarters of their UK staff are “on notice for redundancy”, which he didn’t deny. So that’s another circular conversation out the way. At any rate, yes, eBay is going through a “consultation process” and they are figuring out what everyone’s roles will be here and in other countries, and – get this – he even said there may be new regional officies. But, anything else more specific was “too sensitive to go into.”

    So here’s what I think. eBay UK employs around 100 people. If 75 of them are “on notice” then why don’t they consider the option of taking that redundancy package, when it’s offered and go join a startup?

    Here’s what you startups out there do next: Get on the train out to Richmond, South West London, and stand outside their office with a flyer printed out with your job opportunities.

    Here’s ebay UK’s address to get you going:

    Ebay UK
    Hotham House
    Heron Square
    Richmond
    Surrey
    TW9 1EJ
    Google Map

    Good luck – leave your feedback and stories of hirings in the comments below.

    • http://www.bytesurgery.com Robin Blandford

      lol!! wonder if the same is true in Dublin http://www.ebayjobsireland.com 99% of the jobs offered on ebay are Asia. 0 for Ireland.

    • http://www.bootlaw.com Danvers Baillieu

      Presumably they’ll all happily work for the highest bidder – after 7 days of course.

    • http://iamkeir.com Keir Moffatt

      Perhaps they could all auction themselves off on eBay as a ‘start-up’ kit.

    • Eddie

      Perhaps, in line with the helpful advice eBay give when trying to turn a profit by selling something on their site, they should improve their chance of selling by…
      “Consider a lower start price”

    • Pandolf

      Or perhaps one can expect these ex-employees to take our money but not deliver, as has happened to me several times on eBay.

    • http://europeanstartups.com Ivan Trajkovic

      LOL! This is a good one!

    • http://www.kwiqq.com raj Anand

      I’m considering doing that for a junior devs role :) Thanks for the tip Mike !

    • http://www.chrisfleming.org Chris Fleming

      It would be interesting to know who makes up the EBAY Uk office. I suspect that they will all be Sales and Marketing types, rather than technical…

    • http://www.qype.co.uk Andrew H.

      @Raj Anand – Not sure you’re going to find any Dev’s at eBay UK HQ. As an ex-employee i can confirm that it’s all sales and marketing at Hotham House. Still, lots of smart people…..

      • http://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlon Nathan O’Hanlon

        @Andrew – I’m a current contractor and the Senior Web Application Developer there. I am at FOWA today and looking for a good startup that is open to using symfony and PHP, after a month’s notice, and finishing up 240m views a week. I can confirm there are not many, but 1 QA, 1-3 other web developers, a technical project manager, probably a designer, and probably a handful of less technical product people there. Mainly contractors and often trading under their own companies. Twitter nathanlon or email me. West London’s best. eBay is a great company, and they will do well – but times are tough globally. @raj – no dev work there so don’t bother.

        • http://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlon Nathan O’Hanlon

          @raj – actually, miss-read your comment, you’re looking for someone – contact me if you like.

    • http://aoifebeefah.com/?p=18 aoifebeefah » Blog Archive » My Right Foot -and being let go!
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