Eric Kennedy's answers

Expedia was spun off from Microsoft, and it kept Microsoft's rigorous interview process. I was looking for a job in the depths of the late 2002-early 2003 tech bust, when most jobs that matched my skills and interests required 2-3 years of _post college_ experience. Even though I had 5 paid summer internships through high school and college, most recruiters at tech firms wouldn't even consider me. So I sent my resume with a cover letter to people in the Yale Alumni Network who worked in Program Management in the Seattle area. Two weeks later, I got a screening interview at Expedia. Another week later, I went through 4 more intense interviews, including the "as appropriate" interview with the Group Manager of the Hotel team. Those interviews went well, yet the hiring manager for the only PM job open at that time was on vacation, so I had to come back for another 3 interviews. Questions ranged from those intended to illustrate my personality and intelligence to "describe everything that it takes to make an e-commerce site work." Although the interview process was intense, it was also engaging way to meet my future coworkers....

Dynamic Package Pricing of hotels with flights. In the offline travel world, it has long been the case to discount hotels for travelers that arrive from certain cities. People in Seattle love the weather in the summer, so they don't travel to Hawaii as much as they do during the cold and gray winter months. In contrast, it is cold in San Francisco during the summer because cool ocean air is pulled over the city by the heat in the East Bay and Central Valley. So Expedia might want to offer discounts on summer hotel+flight packages to Hawaii for travelers from Seattle but not from San Francisco. That's a simple example, yet the logic to make this work with all of the existing pricing rules for hotels and flights makes it quite complicated. It was an engaging and fun project, and I was working with a great team of people....