我是怎麼在最好的公司找到工作的

Annie Parsons
安妮帕森斯

Company: General Mills
所屬公司：通用磨坊

Best Companies rank: 64
最佳僱主公司排名：第64位

Role: Community host, Larabar
職位：能量棒社區主管

Age: 31
年齡：31歲

In 2010, Annie Parsons unknowingly submitted to General Mills as unorthodox a resume as it gets. The food company had just announced that it officially had retired its Cocoa Mole Larabar flavor. It had just a few dozen boxes of the fruit and nut bars left and invited fans on Facebook to vie for the limited supply. Parsons, a country music songwriter, submitted a song.
2010年，安妮帕森斯在不知情的情況下向通用磨坊公司（General Mills）遞交了一份非傳統意義上的簡歷。當時這家食品公司剛剛宣佈正式棄用能量棒（Larabar）的恆星摩爾（Cocoa Mole）口味。它還有幾盒水果味能量棒和果仁長條餅的存貨，於是就請Facebook上的粉絲抓緊爭取這些數量有限的小吃。而帕森斯這位鄉村音樂的歌曲作者這時恰恰向公司提交了一支歌。

Cocoa Mole, Parsons wrote in the song, is the "best Larabar I ever tasted."
她在歌中寫道，恆星摩爾口味是“我所吃過的最好的能量棒。”

The company responded by sending Parsons several boxes of the discontinued flavor. "I thought that'd be the end of it," says Parsons.
於是公司就給她寄了幾盒這種已經停產的能量棒。帕森斯說：“我當時覺得不會再有下文了。”

But a few months later General Mills asked Parsons to write several more songs about its Larabars and perform them at a natural foods trade show in California. A job offer followed in late 2011. General Mills wanted Parsons to work as the Larabar community host.
不料幾個月後，通用磨坊突然邀請帕森斯再寫幾首關於能量棒的歌，還請她在加州舉行的天然食品展銷會上自彈自唱這些歌。到了2011年年底，通用磨坊就請她去工作了，職位是擔任能量棒社區的主管。

"My first reaction was that I wasn't looking for another job," recalls Parsons, who had no marketing experience at the time and was happy with her day job in tech support at an email marketer. But the opportunities associated with being the consumer-facing voice of the Larabar brand—like traveLing to a fair trade cocoa farm in the Dominican Republican—won her over.
帕森斯回憶道：“當時我的第一反應是我沒想要跳槽。”她那時沒有營銷經驗，而且也挺滿意自己在一家電子郵件營銷公司裏承擔技術支持的工作。但是去通用磨坊就能擔當能量棒品牌直接面對消費者的代言人——比如可以去多米尼加共和國的公平交易恆星農場出差，這讓她真正動了心。

Before she worked at General Mills, Parson was already eating several Larabars a week. Now, she says, "it's one a day," all for the sake of the brand, of course. "It's a lot easier to be enthusiastic about a product that you personally love."
進入通用磨坊工作前，帕森斯就已經每週都要吃上幾根能量棒了。而現在呢，她說：“一天一根！”當然這主要是爲了品牌推廣，“對你本來就很喜歡的產品來說，要對它充滿熱情真是太容易了!”Jim Barton
吉姆巴頓

Company: David Weekley Homes
所屬公司：David Weekley Homes

Best Companies rank: 13
最佳僱主公司排名：第13位

Role: Sales consultant
職位：銷售顧問

Age: 51
年齡：51歲

Jim Barton had loved home design for as long as he could remember, as far back as when he played with Lincoln Logs and Legos. But the math skills he'd need to be an architect weren't nearly as prevalent. He worked in advertising after college, but on a drive through New Jersey, his love of construction and home building resurfaced. After passing a site for new home construction and having a conversation with the developer, Barton decided on somewhat of a whim to purchase two lots and try his amateur hand at his life-long dream.
吉姆巴頓自打開始玩林肯積木（Lincoln Log）和樂高（Lego）時就喜歡上家裝設計了。不過他不怎麼具備當好一名建築師所必需的數學才能。大學畢業後他先是進了廣告圈，但有一次開車穿過新澤西州時，他對建築和家裝的熱情又重新涌上了心頭。經過一個新的住房建築工地並和開發商聊了聊之後，巴頓突然心血來潮，決定買兩塊地，打算用自己的業餘水平試着打造從小就有的家居夢想。

The risk was worth it. After building his first home on one lot and flipping the other, Barton started his own home building company that specialized in historic reproductions. It was an outlet for his design ideas, minus the math. He'd draw up the plans; an architect would execute them.
這次冒險經歷很值得。巴頓在其中一塊地上造完自己第一座房子並在另一塊地上開工後創辦了自己的建築公司，主要從事復古改造的業務。這是他實現設計創意的地方，當然數學就算了。他負責制訂設計規劃，一個建築師負責執行。

After 18 years of working for himself in the northeast, Barton decided in 2006 he needed to be closer to his parents in Houston, so he closed his business and moved. In 2013, Barton felt the itch to get back to work. A longtime friend said Barton would be a perfect fit at her former employer, home developer David Weekley Homes. "It was sort of like getting set up on a blind date. Your friend tells you how wonderful Sue is, but you never know if you're going to feel the same way," Barton says. After three months of interviews, Barton and DWH turned out to be a perfect match.
巴頓在東北部地區創業18年後，到了2006年，他覺得自己得離住在休斯頓的父母近些，於是他就關停公司搬了家。到了2013年，他又覺得手癢，想重返工作崗位。他的一位老朋友認爲，巴頓很適合她的老東家，即住房開發商David Weekley Homes。巴頓後來回顧說：“這有點像被安排去相親。你朋友跟你說對方有多好，但你根本不知道自己會不會也這麼想。”談了三個月後，巴頓和DWH公司覺得雙方確實算是天作之合。

DWH hired Barton as a sales consultant in August 2013 in its build-on-your-lot division. He works with customers who already own a lot of land and want David Weekley to build a home on it. And he still gets to tap his creative side by customizing a home's finishes to the customer's specifications.
2013年8月，DWH公司聘請巴頓擔任“自家地上造房”部門的銷售顧問。他所服務的客戶是那些家裏有很多地，想請DWH公司來造房子的人。這份工作還是讓他有機會發揮一下創意天賦，按客戶的特定要求定製家居裝潢。Afton Jacobson
阿芙頓雅各布森

Company: CarMax
所屬公司：車美仕

Best Companies rank: 54
最佳僱主公司排名：第54位

Role: Sales Manager
職位：銷售經理

Age: 26
年齡：26歲

Just prior to graduating college in 2010, Jacobson was looking for a job. With a degree in financial services, her goal was to land a gig as an advisor at a financial firm. As the hunt grew fruitless, she decided she'd look for an interim position -- one with benefits -- to pay the bills as she continued her search for her dream role.
2010年大學畢業前，雅各布森一直在爲找工作而奔忙。因爲擁有金融服務學位，她本來的目標是去金融公司當個諮詢師。她找了好一陣都沒有結果，於是決定先找個實習崗位——就是那種發薪的——以便在她繼續爲了理想工作奔走時能應付一下開銷。

At the urging of her dad, she applied online to a business office opening at CarMax in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio. "Mentally, I was considering it a stepping stone," says Jacobson. She had a job offer within five days.
後來，她在父親的催促下上網申請了一份車美仕（CarMax）營業部的工作，工作地點在她老家——俄亥俄州代頓市。她說：“說心裏話，我就覺得這份工作只是個跳板而已。”結果她五天後就被錄用了。

Though she applied for a business office position, a sales manager convinced Jacobson into taking a sales consultant role, given her prior experience at a summer job selling pools and spas.
儘管她申請的是營業廳的崗位，但一個銷售經理考慮到她以前暑假時賣彩票和冷飲的經驗，就說服她試試銷售顧問這個職位。

About six months after starting as a sales consultant, Jacobson was promoted to a sales mentor, a job that allowed her to help train new hires. A little more than a year later she became a sales-manager-in-training, and in August 2012 she graduated to the sales manager title, which means she oversees other sales consultants.
雅各布森幹了大概六個月的銷售顧問後就被提拔爲銷售指導，專門負責培訓新員工。一年多後，她又被提爲銷售經理培訓生，到了2012年8月，她終於成了銷售經理，也就是說她開始負責管理其他銷售顧問了。

More than three years and three promotions later, her interim job has turned into the career she'd always wanted. Jacobson's goal to be in financial services was based on her desire to help people, and that's what she's doing now, she says, by helping customers find the right vehicle and appropriate payment plan.
三年多期間經過三次提拔後，這份實習工作已經成了她想畢生從事的職業。她說，本來立志進入金融服務業也是想幫助更多人，但現在這份工作是幫助客戶選車並制訂合適的購買計劃，它已經實現了這一點。