我是怎样在“最佳雇主”找到工作的

    安妮•帕森斯

    • 所属公司：通用磨坊

    • 最佳雇主公司排名：第64位

    • 职位：能量棒社区主管

    • 年龄：31岁

    2010年，安妮•帕森斯在不知情的情况下向通用磨坊公司（General Mills）递交了一份非传统意义上的简历。当时这家食品公司刚刚宣布正式弃用能量棒（Larabar）的可可摩尔（Cocoa Mole）口味。它还有几盒水果味能量棒和果仁长条饼的存货，于是就请Facebook上的粉丝抓紧争取这些数量有限的小吃。而帕森斯这位乡村音乐的歌曲作者这时恰恰向公司提交了一支歌。

    她在歌中写道，可可摩尔口味是“我所吃过的最好的能量棒。”

    于是公司就给她寄了几盒这种已经停产的能量棒。帕森斯说：“我当时觉得不会再有下文了。”

    不料几个月后，通用磨坊突然邀请帕森斯再写几首关于能量棒的歌，还请她在加州举行的天然食品展销会上自弹自唱这些歌。到了2011年年底，通用磨坊就请她去工作了，职位是担任能量棒社区的主管。

    帕森斯回忆道：“当时我的第一反应是我没想要跳槽。”她那时没有营销经验，而且也挺满意自己在一家电子邮件营销公司里承担技术支持的工作。但是去通用磨坊就能担当能量棒品牌直接面对消费者的代言人——比如可以去多米尼加共和国的公平交易可可农场出差，这让她真正动了心。

    进入通用磨坊工作前，帕森斯就已经每周都要吃上几根能量棒了。而现在呢，她说：“一天一根！”当然这主要是为了品牌推广，“对你本来就很喜欢的产品来说，要对它充满热情真是太容易了!”   

    Annie Parsons

    • Company: General Mills

    • Best Companies rank: 64

    • Role: Community host, Larabar

    • Age: 31

    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.

    Cocoa Mole, Parsons wrote in the song, is the "best Larabar I ever tasted."

    The company responded by sending Parsons several boxes of the discontinued flavor. "I thought that'd be the end of it," says Parsons.

    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.

    "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.

    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."