How a cold email got a paid internship…
eBay Internship
At 14 years old, Sam started a business through eBay selling old American coins and currency. Sam started the business with less than $300.00, but he has since generated over $300,000.00 in revenue through his store.
In spring of 2021, Sam joined an eBay Zoom webinar where the Senior Vice President (SVP) of eBay was speaking. Although Sam had planned to be a camp counselor, he realized in that moment eBay would be an incredible company for him to intern with. Knowing corporate emails are all relatively similar, Sam decided to try to guess the SVP’s email.
His email went through and the SVP passed Sam’s message on to the head of recruiting–just minutes later. Within a week of sending the cold email, Sam was offered a twelve-week, full-time, paid internship at eBay. Sam joined the Seller Community and Engagement team at eBay and had an incredible, empowering experience–to say the least.
How to fill your time when there’s a pandemic…
Real Estate License
Sam was initially supposed to be a camp counselor in the summer of 2021. However, camp was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Wanting to take advantage of his summer break, Sam began brainstorming possible projects given the pandemic. Sam had always been interested in real estate and decided now was the time to work towards his license.
Sam enrolled in the required courses (Real Estate Principles, Real Estate Practice, Real Estate Economics) to earn the necessary certificates. After months of hard work, Sam completed all three courses, just before flying to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to begin college at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Since returning home in spring of 2021, Sam scheduled his real estate exam and began studying. Sam will take the test in August of 2021.
A spin-off business…
The Feedback Fixer
On eBay, after a transaction, buyers have the chance to leave feedback. They choose to leave positive, neutral, or negative feedback. Having 15,000+ transactions on the platform, Sam had received a few unfair neutral and negative feedbacks–despite having done everything to please the buyers. However, Sam learned that if you can present an in-policy reason as to why a feedback should be removed, eBay will remove it.
One day, Sam’s old mailman, who also sells on eBay, shared he had received an unfair negative feedback–and was clearly frustrated by it. Hearing his mailman’s story, Sam knew the buyer was trying to take advantage of him, so Sam offered to help have his mailman’s negative feedback removed. His mailman stood there for 17 minutes while Sam had the unfair feedback removed. His mailman couldn’t thank him enough.
As he watched his mailman drive away, Sam realized how much his simple action meant to his mailman. Sam saw an opportunity. He started an Instagram (@thefeedbackfixer) and began cold messaging eBay sellers to offer his feedback removal services. Just two years later, Sam now has a website and works as a consultant for 500+ eBay sellers.