THE HANGOUTS Go crunchy: Head for the weekly farmer's market, Thursday afternoons in eBay's main courtyard. From May to October, pick up some avocados, strawberries, and points while you gab with employees. In the fall, head to PruneYard, an unappetizingly named shopping mall complex just blocks away (the Kyoto Palace Japanese restaurant is a staffer favorite), or the Whole Foods across the street to chat someone up over a cup of joe.
GETUP You won't spend much dough on clothes if you land at eBay. Staffers still shun the haute, wearing khakis, denim button-downs, or polo shirts logo'd with their last dot-com employer. Shoes? Forget Jimmy Choos. If you're not wearing sneakers for lunchtime Ultimate (that's Frisbee to you), you're donning loafers--no socks for ladies, white athletics for gents. Even CEO Meg Whitman appears this way in public.
PARTYOP Every year the company invites eBay users to "eBay Live" to learn more about its customers--and adoring public. This annual June event (last year's was in Orlando) is your opportunity to study the fanatic. Steeping yourself in the customers' culture--learning their tics and quirks--will win points when you get that sit-down with human resources and give them your insights on marketing to the eBay world.
URBAN MYTH Don't trot out the warmed-over legend of Pierre Omidyar starting eBay so his fiance could trade her PEZ dispenser collection. The company admitted the story was exaggerated, reportedly by Omidyar, to spice up the trading site's back story.
SECRET HANDSHAKE Got a collecting quirk? Don't hide it now. Entire careers at eBay are built on knowing everything about, say, comic books or vintage Coke bottles (it takes an eBayer to know an eBayer). We're not saying bring the stamp collection to the interview, but do prove your reliability: Trot out that stellar seller rating.
