“最佳雇主”求职亲历

    职务：高级人力资源经理

    任职公司：在线零售商扎珀斯

    扎珀斯（Zappos）以古怪的公司文化为荣。比如，在公司网站的招聘页面上，有一个“扎珀斯家庭音乐视频”。里面有各种稀奇古怪的动作，其中有一个穿着热狗服装的家伙在翻跟斗。

    很明显，这家在线零售商一直不缺少奇葩。早在2004年，当时扎珀斯还只有约100名员工，克里斯缇娜•弗雷参加了公司第一个人力资源专员职位的面试。在那里，她遭遇了一场恶作剧。

    她本来就已经对面试就已经有点紧张了。这家公司以超级随意著称。她说道：“我记得，当时我想：‘我该不该穿套装呢？’最后我穿了一身长裤套装，这样我可以把外套脱掉，看起来也就没有正式上班族那么拘束了。”

    弗雷见到了两位扎珀斯员工，他们要求她捉弄一下即将对她进行面试的公司高管弗雷德•莫斯勒与公司CEO谢家华。他们让她问两位高管，在小学时谢家华是不是长得比莫斯勒高。弗雷说：“如果你了解谢家华和弗雷德的话，你就会发现这很有趣。弗雷德大约有六英尺高，而谢家华则是一个矮小的亚洲男人。”

    这是她提出的第一个问题，她认为这是在测试她有多容易相处，胆子够不够大。

    倒霉的是，“这个恶作剧彻底搞砸了。他们两个面面相觑，都一脸疑惑。”

    事实上，虽然扎珀斯是个古怪的地方，但公司高管对于人才招聘却非常严肃。弗雷的问题让他们一头雾水，但他们还是继续面试，当然开玩笑的员工后来出面澄清了误会。最后，虽然弗雷又领教了扎珀斯内部的一些古怪行为，但还是得到了那份工作。

    弗雷现在成了谢家华的好友。不过，她说“在最开始的六个月，我甚至都不敢看他。”

    那些喜欢恶作剧的员工呢？“我认为他们只是彼此开玩笑。玩笑没起到效果，让我对自己喜剧细胞的缺乏很是惭愧。”

    Title: Senior HR Manager

    Company: Zappos

    Zappos prides itself on being a kooky place. For example, there is a "Zappos Family Music Video" on the jobs page of its website that features, among other antics, a guy wearing a hotdog suit doing a backflip.

    The online retailer has always been full of goobers, apparently. In fact, back in 2004, when Zappos only had about 100 employees, Christa Foley was interviewing to be the company's first HR generalist. And she got caught in the middle of a practical joke.

    She was already a little nervous about the interview. The company was known for being super casual, she says. "I remember thinking, 'should I wear a suit or not?' I ended up wearing a pantsuit so I could take my jacket off and look less corporate-y."

    Foley interviewed with two Zappos employees who asked her to play a joke on senior executive Fred Mossler and CEO Tony Hsieh, who were interviewing her next. They told her to ask the senior Zappos execs if Hsieh had been taller than Mossler in grade school. "It's funny if you know Tony and Fred," says Foley. "Fred is like six-foot-something, and Tony is a small Asian man."

    It was the first question she asked, assuming that it was a test of how easygoing and carefree she could be.

    Unfortunately, "It totally flopped. They literally looked at each other with a confused expression."

    Turns out Zappos is zany, but its top managers were pretty serious about hiring talent. They continued with the interview, although they were confused by her question, which the jokesters later cleared up. Foley got the job, despite getting caught up in some intra-Zappos antics.

    Foley is friends with Hsieh now, she says, but "for the first six months, I couldn't even look at Tony."

    As for the pranksters? "I think they were having fun with each other. I blame my lack of comic skills for not landing the joke."