A Message For the OfferUp Community
Below is an article originally published on Apr 22, 2020 in OfferUp blog. Go to OfferUp's company page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
As a marketplace that promotes interpersonal connection, both online and offline, we are deeply saddened to see the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis span the globe. Our hearts go out to all of those who have lost loved ones or fallen on hard times as a consequence of this concerning and rapidly-changing situation.
In order to adapt to the challenging times both behind us and ahead, and provide the best possible support to our employees and the OfferUp Community, we've changed a few things about our business and have some suggestions for buyers, sellers, and shippers with our best tips for navigating online marketplaces in the days to come.
The trust and safety of our community is our number one priority. Certain medical and healthcare items are not allowed for sale on OfferUp, including listings that claim the item can diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent a disease or virus, or any items that claim to be CDC or WHO approved.
We will continue to remove items that violate our prohibited items guidelines and monitor for price spikes and items with false claims through a mix of automated and manual review.
Posts that violate any of our guidelines, policies, or terms may be removed at our discretion. Additional actions including account suspension may be taken for severe or repeat offenses.
We will continue to monitor this situation and we will provide updates on this blog to communicate any changes to the OfferUp platform or our policies in response to COVID-19. Please click here to read more about how we are supporting our paying Autos Dealers as they adjust to the difficult economic times ahead.
Our Employees
Out of an abundance of caution and in line with local and Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, our employees are working from home until further notice.
Our team is contributing to the broader conversation on best practices to support remote work, so keep an eye on the Life at OfferUp Instagram for some of the creative solutions they have come up with to make their work-life work better at home.
Our Buyers and Sellers
These are unprecedented times, and many are changing their daily routines in order to adapt. Some community members have started doing "no-contact porch pickups", and others have shifted their sales entirely from in-person pick up to shipping. Here's how to activate shipping for your existing items:
"Turn On" Shipping For Posted Items
If any of your items are shippable (learn more about OfferUp Shipping Policies), you can easily edit those items so they show as shippable to OfferUp buyers. This will help you reach new buyers, and remain in compliance with any stay-at-home orders in your area.
You can easily "turn on" shipping for any items you have already posted. Here's how:
- Go to the Selling Tab under "My Offers"
- Tap the item you'd like to enable for shipping
- Tap "Edit"
- Go to "Delivery Method" and tap the button next to "Sell & ship nationwide"
- Tap "Save" and that's it! Your item will now appear as shippable nationwide.
Our Community
OfferUp has always been local first, and we want to support our local communities in this challenging time. OfferUp was created in Seattle and we have been welcomed with open arms in our second home in Miami. As a commitment to our home locations, we're pledging to give back and help some of those hit hardest by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic:
- We've donated to The Plate Fund in Seattle — an organization that provides one-time $500 payments to furloughed restaurant workers.
- Donations were also sent to Frontline Foods in Miami — an organization that works with local restaurants to provide meals to medical workers on the front lines of the pandemic
For our auto dealer community, we've updated our billing rates for Verified Dealers. Click here to learn more about how we're supporting our autos customers.
To help with ongoing support, our Customer Support team is standing by to continue to provide assistance to OfferUp buyers and sellers across the nation. You can reach our Support team for help seven days a week on the Help Center, Facebook, or Twitter.
We will continue to look for ways to empower our community to connect and prosper. Thank you for being a part of the OfferUp Community.
FAQ
Sharing Responses to the OfferUp Community's Most Frequently Asked Questions Related to Coronavirus
Should We Be Meeting Up In-Person?
We know that many OfferUp buyers and sellers continue to complete in-person meetups during this time. In accordance with current CDC guidelines, we recommend keeping the following tips in mind before scheduling a meetup:
- Stay home if you don't feel well, and do not meet up if you or someone in your household displays symptoms of coronavirus or other respiratory illnesses.
- Maintain a distance of at least six feet at all times.
- The CDC recommends wearing a cloth face mask when in a public place where it's difficult to maintain social distancing, such as grocery stores. You can purchase these on OfferUp.
- Wash your hands before and after completing a meetup, and avoid touching your face (eyes, mouth, and nose).
- Meet at a Community MeetUp Spot or SafeTradeSpot and avoid meeting at others' homes wherever possible.
We appreciate our community doing their part to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
What is A "No-Contact Porch Pickup"?
To avoid more than one party leaving their home to complete an OfferUp transaction, and reduce direct contact with others, many online marketplace buyers and sellers are opting for "No-Contact Porch Pickups". This means the seller provides a buyer with their address and leaves the item on their porch. The buyer will then come, leave cash in a predetermined location, or use a digital money transfer service like (PayPal or Venmo), and take the item home.
Per our safety guidelines, we recommend meeting at a Community MeetUp Spot, or in a public, surveilled, and brightly-lit location whenever possible.
If you feel comfortable completing a porch pickup, here are a few things to consider:
- Take a look at the buyer or seller's profile. Are they TruYou verified and highly-rated from past meetups? Always look at the other party's OfferUp profile before completing a meetup.
- Trust your gut. If something seems "too good to be true" it most likely is. Even in these difficult times, no item or sale is ever worth your safety.
- Consider getting a doorbell camera. This is an easy way to keep an eye on your porch pickup without having to make direct contact.
- Set a window during the day when the item will be available to the buyer. Always aim to complete online marketplaces during the day, either in-person or with "no-contact porch pickups."
You can read our tips to more safely use online marketplaces here.
How Do I Ship Items From Home?
The USPS is an essential service and will remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, though shipping times may be delayed and hours of operations may be reduced.
OfferUp shippers have the option to visit their local USPS office to pick up shipping supplies or drop off packages that are ready to be shipped.
The USPS also carries free shipping supplies they can send to your home, as well as scheduled pickups so you can get your OfferUp items shipped without leaving your home. To schedule a USPS pickup, click here.
If you need help with a shipping transaction, contact OfferUp Support.
What Are Some Popular Items to Buy or Sell on OfferUp?
Demand for items from the following categories has been growing in popularity during this time:
Should I Disinfect Items Before Selling/After Buying?
According to the CDC, the Coronavirus is transmitted in close contact (less than six feet) through respiratory droplets. Cleaning as well as disinfecting visibly dirty or frequently touched surfaces/devices is considered a best practice to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and other viral respiratory illnesses.
While OfferUp sellers should avoid listing items as "Coronavirus-free" or "COVID-19-proof," it is a good idea to share any increased cleaning/disinfecting steps you have taken to clean items for potential buyers.
Here are some popular items for sale that should be cleaned and disinfected before selling and after buying when using online marketplaces, per CDC recommendation:
- Tables
- Hard-backed chairs
- Doorknobs and handles
- Light switches
- Tablets, phones, e-readers, any touch-screens
- Remote controls
- Desks
- Appliances
- Toys, and all kids' items
- Bikes
- Board games
- Video games and consoles
- Books
27 Companies with Impressive Mentorship Opportunities
We asked some of our partner companies to tell us about the mentorship opportunities they offer. If you’re ready to unleash your full potential by joining an impactful mentoring program, keep reading to hear what they said. (Plus, they’re all hiring—check out their open jobs under each entry!)
Clarus Commerce
“Clarus Commerce has been running a mentorship program for the last 9 years. Here is how it works:
- Senior leaders nominate mentors within their department.
- The program lasts for about 6 months.
- Those who are interested in being mentored provide 6 topics that they’d like to discuss in mentoring meetings, which help us pair people up. Mentoring topics should focus on topics such as: leadership, how to manage up, presentation skills, communication, work life balance, etc.
- We leverage our Insights and Discovery profiles that each employee has to help better understand each other’s communication styles and help facilitate great discussions.”
Learn more about Clarus Commerce here.
PwC
“PwC professionals are provided learning opportunities, supportive career growth and unique mentoring opportunities to help them to fulfill their potential. The firm has several programs that include intentional mentorship and focus on building representation, inclusion and development of their people. For example, the firm launched Enrich, an experience designed to support the development and leadership skills of high-potential female and racially and ethnically diverse senior managers and directors. There is also Thrive, an innovative two-year experience for Black and Latinx entry-level new joiners that helps lay the foundation for a successful career through culture workshops, networking, connectivity and leadership engagement.”
Learn more about PwC here.
CallRail
“At CallRail we have a program called Connection Point where individual contributors are paired with members of the Senior Leadership Team. Each pair is together for a full quarter and are given topics for their meetings, topics range from; career stories, situational advice and feedback, etc. At the conclusion of the quarter the individual contributors that have been in the program have a round table lunch with the CEO. This has been a great way to foster deeper connections within the organization, demystify senior leadership and help individuals see a path forward.”
Learn more about CallRail here.
Automattic
“Automattic’s Design Mentoring program is a mutually beneficial partnership providing development opportunities for all. Mentees pick up new skills or get guidance with a project. Mentors practice communication, leadership, and knowledge sharing. The organization benefits from more engaged, productive employees, who have increased job satisfaction because mentorship encourages meaningful work that aligns personal and professional goals. In our distributed work environment, mentoring provides a human connection and a trusted space to grow. Tapping into all of the design experience and skill that our organization has is a powerful way to grow individually … and collectively."
Learn more about Automattic here.
Relativity
“Relativity Women of the Workplace (RelWoW) Mentorship Circles is a group mentoring program that brings together women at varying stages in their careers and from every department at Relativity. The program sessions are curated by our team and include materials, talking points and action items to help create open dialogue, build connections and develop skills for personal and professional development. The program runs around six months, and includes a kickoff, mid-point event exclusive to program members, and a closing celebration. Relativity also plans to pilot a new mentoring program with broader reach across the company in 2022.”
—Yvonne Frazier – Executive Assistant
Learn more about Relativity here.
CDW
“CDW Business Resource Groups are a key source for networking and mentoring opportunities. In 2019, our BeU BRG launched a formal mentoring program through their Project IMPACT initiative aimed at recruiting, retaining and promoting Black coworkers. It has been a successful program that has brought coworkers together across departments and roles, sharing new experiences and perspectives for both mentors and mentees.”
Learn more about CDW here.
Kinesso
“BRIDGE is Kinesso's reverse mentoring program bringing together senior leaders and future leaders globally. Our program pairs employees with Kinesso's Senior Leadership Team, but rather than leadership mentoring employees, our employees mentor our senior leaders!
Through mentorship programs like Bridge, Kinesso's brings together employees across generations, cultures, territories, and job levels. Giving our future leaders the opportunity to share fresh perspectives and innovative ideas allows our current leaders to look at inclusion, capabilities, collaboration, and connectivity from a completely different lens.
"(Bridge) is immensely important for many reasons, but most of all, it shows that no matter where you are in your career, you should never stop learning and growing."
—Arun Kumar, CEO at Kinesso and Global Chief Data & Marketing Technology Officer at IPG”
For more information on Kinesso, please visit Kinesso.com/careers.
Learn more about Kinesso here.
SoundCloud
"At SoundCloud, one of our core behaviors is to embrace the challenge- but that doesn’t mean that you go at it alone. We encourage SoundClouders to ask for help and to give help to those who it need along the way. Over the past few years we have offered a mentorship program that connects rising SoundClouders with under-represented identities (gender/race/ethnicity) with more senior level employees around topics of professional branding and career growth, influencing and emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking. In 2022, we aim to launch 2 cohorts of mentorship/coaching targeting different ranks of women of color."
Learn more about SoundCloud here.
BlackRock
“BlackRock has nine employee networks and four professional networks – all of which offer mentorship programs or opportunities.
Our employee networks: Mosaic; Ability & Allies Network; Asian, Middle Eastern & Allies Professional Network; Black Professionals & Allies Network; Families & Allies Network; Out & Allies Network; SOMOS Latinx & Allies Network; and Women's Initiative & Allies Network.
Our professional networks: Analyst Alley, Associates Arena, Global Administrative Initiative Network, and VP Village.”
Learn more about BlackRock here.
Lockheed Martin
“Having both formal and informal mentors is crucial to elevate any career. At Lockheed Martin, mentoring is the development of meaningful relationships to transfer valuable knowledge and understanding from one person to another. It is a personal enhancement strategy through which one person willingly facilitates the development of another by sharing known resources, expertise, values, skills, perspectives, attitudes, and proficiencies. Our mentoring program is tailored to the individual employee to give them the right tools, the right resources, at the right time.”
Learn more about Lockheed Martin here.
Autodesk
“Autodesk is a place where you can shape your future and help others do the same. The Autodesk Mentorship Program empowers employees to take ownership of their careers and build on a mindset of learning from each other by offering mentorship opportunities for professional and personal development, peer-to-peer learning, and focused networking. The program helps you identify your goals and recommends matches for a mentor or mentee to help you accomplish them. Through the Autodesk Mentorship Program, employees can make connections, grow their skills, explore opportunities and build their career paths.”
Learn more about Autodesk here.
Cummins
“Cummins Women’s Empowerment Network (WEN) focuses on a mission to create the right environment by advocating for equal representation, empowering women, and fostering inclusion for every employee in all work assignments at all levels.
As part of the work to achieve such a mission, WEN focuses on mentoring and development initiatives designed to foster mentoring relationships, broaden employee networks, and provide opportunities for personal and professional growth. Initiatives include Speed Mentoring Sessions, Personal Development & Networking Events and WEN Mentoring Circles Program. This annual Mentoring Circles Program provides a monthly opportunity for exempt employees to participate in a forum for open discussion, explore new perspectives and learn from peers and leaders.
Within the Europe region we also have the Cummins Business Services mentoring program which is open to all employees at all levels.”
Learn more about Cummins here.
Millennium Management
“Meet a pairing in Millennium’s Mentorship Program: Cari Smalley, Co-Head HR Business Partners, Americas, and Jasmin Zirino, Operations Specialist. They say, "The mentorship program is a fantastic experience for anyone who wishes to join. It allows you to meet someone you do not directly work with and grow your network. It is invaluable to have the ability to work through solutions to problems, use one another as sounding boards, and occasionally just blow off steam in a supportive space."”
Learn more about Millennium Management here.
Expedia Group
“Mentorship is about stepping out of our comfort zone, taking charge and acting upon our ambitions, opening doors for others and learning more about the skills that make our own success.
Expedia Group has a volunteer-led program allowing every employee to have an equal chance to grow and succeed. The program has brought together a group of 1,700 Expedians from all over the world who believe in skills development and the power to elevate others while creating Inclusion at Expedia Group. Through a self-service marketplace platform and organized meetup sessions, EG’s Mentoring Program enables all employees to ask for help and embrace their own identity while belonging to a community that thrives through diversity.”
Learn more about Expedia Group here.
Equinix
“At Equinix, our employee connection networks (EECNs) play an important role in bringing together communities for learning and growth opportunities, including mentoring. While mentees gain much from mentors, we often find that mentors also discover growth opportunities.
By asking these questions, we instill best practices for a successful mentorship:
What does each party want from this experience? How often to meet? Confidentiality: What’s shareable and what isn’t?
Feedback: What are the expectations around giving and receiving feedback?
And remember, a mentoring relationship is like any other relationship—it takes time to develop. Build trust by getting to know one another.”
Learn more about Equinix here.
Unstoppable Domains
"At Unstoppable, it is our commitment to having a crypto forward culture. Every new team member is matched with a Crypto Buddy who acts as their first point of contact outside of their direct team, guides them down the crypto rabbit hole, and welcomes them into Unstoppable’s culture. As a fully remote company, making cross-team collaboration a key part of onboarding strengthens our community. This is also an opportunity for the buddy to hone their mentoring and teaching skills. When the new hire has been with the company for six months, they will then become a mentor themselves, driving a continuous cycle of mentorship."
Learn more about Unstoppable Domains here.
Uber
“Mentoring@Uber connects employees who are passionate about helping and up-skilling others with those who are seeking guidance and development. It is a way of connecting and sharing challenges on a mutual and reliable relationship —and trying to get another perspective from an unbiased source. It’s also an opportunity to learn from the experiences of others, or collaborate together to come up with a solution to professional problems that arise. People with mentors perform better, advance in their careers faster, and even maintain more work-life balance. And mentors benefit, too.”
Learn more about Uber here.
MongoDB
“MongoDB has offered two pilot mentorship programs to support underrepresented groups. One program focused on promising first-line managers and ICs from underrepresented groups and the other focused on providing executive mentorship to women & nonbinary leaders at the director level and up. In both programs, participants were matched with a mentor with who they regularly met to discuss career planning and personal development. Feedback from both pilots was hugely positive with participants indicating that they received helpful support from their mentors. Members from our ERGs have also served as mentors to our summer class of interns.”
Learn more about MongoDB here.
PagerDuty
“Our Black and Latinx ERG, Array, offers a mentorship program pairing individual contributors within Array to C-Suite and VP level mentors, including PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada. Dedicated to leveling the playing field for Black and Latinx employees, the program is structured so everyone can learn from each other. Mentees are paired with mentors from within or outside their department for a nine-month term, which includes check-ins, themed discussions, and monthly one-on-ones. Bri Solorzano, an Array mentee, explained that this mentorship program allows her to build bonds with higher level executives, and share her personal experiences as a Latinx employee and individual contributor at PagerDuty.”
Learn more about PagerDuty here.
T. Rowe Price
“Due to the highly collaborative culture at T. Rowe Price, the firm understands the value of relationships and the opportunities strong mentorship can provide. It is committed to not only developing talent within its walls but developing the next generation of talent within communities.
The firm will launch a new global mentorship program in 2022, which will offer associates the opportunity to connect with colleagues, agnostic of location or business unit. T. Rowe Price also provides leadership development to youth in the community through strategic partnerships such as the Baltimore Ravens Leadership Institute, a program aimed at high school students.”
Learn more about T. Rowe Price here.
Pluralsight
“At Pluralsight, we take growth seriously. Which is why we offer a six-month long mentorship program for all of our employees. Our mentorship program is facilitated bi-annually by Women@Pluralsight, one of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and aims to empower participants to recognize their full potential. We intentionally pair mentors and mentees to create connections that encourage the development of skills crucial to success, and foster personal and professional growth. In our most recent cycle we paired nearly 200 participants and have plans to continue growing that number. Because at Pluralsight, your growth is our growth, and vice versa.”
Learn more about Pluralsight here.
Yelp
“At Yelp, we value and actively foster an environment focused on learning and development. There are a variety of mentorship opportunities available, such as:
- New Hire Mentors — new employees are paired with a team mentor to help them onboard and get settled in.
- Engineering Mentorship Program — any IC engineer can sign up to become or get a mentor within Yelp Engineering.
- Manager Mentorship Program — new engineering managers or proto-managers can get support from experienced managers at Yelp.
- Awesome Women in Engineering — This employee resource group’s mentorship program helps AWE members find mentors or mentee within the group.”
Learn more about Yelp here.
Turo
“At Turo, we help each other. We collaborate. We challenge each other. And we create the tools to succeed independently and as a team.
When you join Turo engineering, you’re assigned a mentor, a reliable, single point-of-contact to help you set up your environment, navigate the codebase, and acclimate to Turo’s culture and workplace. Mentors have a great responsibility to ensure new Turists feel welcome, offer encouragement, and provide advice and guidance on complex matters of systems and architecture. Engineers who demonstrate our core values of efficiency, pioneering, and being down-to-earth and supportive have an opportunity to mentor new engineers. Mentoring engineers is a great way to build the skills necessary to further your career at Turo.”
“Mentoring has allowed me to deepen my technical understanding and team connections.”
– Lauren Kroner, Senior Software Engineer
Learn more about Turo here.
Moody's
“In the US, Moody’s has an intergenerational mentoring program, our Pride BRG members coach youth in the Queer Coders program. Our Women’s, Veterans, and Multicultural BRGs have a variety of mentoring programs, including summer intern mentorship, our Asian Leadership Initiative and our ConectaMos Hispanic/Latinx 1:1 mentoring program. Our Women’s Group Mentoring Program just celebrated its 10th anniversary with over 800 mentor-mentee participants over 10 years. In EMEA, Moody’s offers Power to Act reverse mentoring, mentoring through the Women’s and Pride BRGs, and a parental leave mentoring scheme. In APAC, Moody’s has various cross-BRG and cross-department mentoring programs.”
Learn more about Moody’s here.
Condé Nast
“At Condé Nast, we are focused on providing positive career development opportunities. We recently launched a Global Mentorship Program as an option for employees to connect and learn from one another. For six months, employees participate as a mentor and/or mentee to develop their careers, grow their skills and guide one another. The structured framework creates and sustains an inclusive experience that empowers everyone’s growth.
The MentorcliQ platform we use lets us create mentoring pairs based on their interests, experiences and personality compatibility. To date we have had 473 active mentorship pairs.”
Learn more about Condé Nast here.
Thornburg
“Thornburg Small Group Mentor Program was created to bring employees of various tenures and experience levels together in order to cultivate organic relationships and opportunities for influence in a low-pressure environment.
The program consists of six small groups comprised of one mentor and three to six mentees. These groups meet for one hour every month for six months. The series concludes with a virtual event where all participants from every group can meet and share takeaways from their experiences.
Program Highlights:
- Small group format (not one-on-one)
- Low cost, low maintenance, light structure
- Flexibility for mentors to lead through individual style"
Learn more about Thornburg here.
Okta
“Women@Okta’s upcoming mentorship program:
W@Okta’s vision for the year is to empower, develop and support women-identified employees in order to ultimately improve gender diversity at Okta. One of our key methods is to empower the next generation of female leadership by providing a platform for women to connect and learn from one another through group and 1:1 mentorship opportunities. Our Professional Development branch is launching a pilot mentorship program with an initial cohort of 32 mentors and mentees.
Goals: Career, personal and organizational
Share your needs, desires, goals, and challenges; career choice and mobility.
Explore people, resources, information, expertise you need – but don’t have – to speed up, enhance, and ensure your results.”
—Professional Development Lead Christina Ghallagher (Senior Sales Development Representative) & Partnerships Co-Lead Sarah Schiff (Senior Manager, Customer First Recruiting)
Learn more about Okta here.
