Gang, it has been a while since I did one of these so I thought it was about time for a new “5 Minutes with…” As I’ve tried to do with previous installments, I’ve tied the interview into some timely news or activity happening here.
Kasey Hesse is based back in PayPal‘s Omaha, Nebraska offices where she launched a Corporate Community Garden program allowing employees to plant crops on a small plot of land.
The program has expanded now to the North Campus here in San Jose, so I thought it would be good to spend “5 Minutes with…” Kasey while she was here. Check out the story from local ABC 7 regarding the project and also be sure to check out her answers to our recurring Q&A feature… my favorite answers to date!
Cheers,
RBH
Full Name: Kasey Hesse
Nickname: n/a
Official Title: User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Engineer
What You Really Do: I try to break PayPal products before they go live to site to ensure our features are user friendly. When in doubt I test a product how I think my mom would use it; an approach that nets most errors. UAT keeps me busy, as a supplement to QA we manually test the end-to-end user experience of 5-7 products per push, 1-2 products per .x release, plus we test internal tools for Global Operations in Omaha.
Your First Day at eBay: Hmm, the first week of September in 2004. I forget the exact date but I am looking forward to my sabbatical!
Education/Schooling: Bachelors degree in International Studies and Portuguese from the University of Nebraska @ Lincoln in 2003. Currently working on a graduate degree from University of Nebraska @ Omaha and hope to graduate in December of 2010.
Interests: Going to school full-time and working full-time take up most of my week. However, I am also the leader of the PayPal Green Team in Omaha. I’m currently training for my third marathon (Philadelphia in November) along with my husband. My goal is to finish in less than twice his time; he’s really fast – he qualified for the Boston Marathon on his first try! I also love to canoe on local lakes and rivers. I was on the crew in college and it is nice to be back on the water.
Favorite Quote: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Most memorable eBay experience: I’ve had a lot of great experiences with PayPal – breaking ground on our corporate community garden in Omaha was a big deal for me because it was the materialization of a big idea I’d been working on for months. It’s amazing that you can still daydream and think “how cool would it be if…” and actually have something come of it. We had 97 people request a plot in the first week; so it was reaffirming to know that other people wanted to be a part of something I’d created.
Most recent eBay purchase/sale: I bought all of my textbooks for next semester on half.com using my eBay ID and PayPal checkout – that counts, right?
Favorite Albums: Hmm, while my favorite musician is Ben Folds, I couldn’t live without Journey’s Greatest Hits. What!?! I run 8 hours a week and classic rock keeps me going.
Favorite Movies: The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Guy Ritchie films always seem to delight me (except that one with Madonna…)
What You Wanted to Be Growing Up: Awesome
Fill in the blanks:
I should have run my 5 miler yesterday.
I wish that I could pack more hours into my day.
The first thing I do when I get to work is clear out my inbox so I can send emails – my Outlook is always full!