Annie Parsons
安妮帕森斯
Company: General Mills
所属公司：通用磨坊
Best Companies rank: 64
最佳雇主公司排名：第64位
Role: Community host, Larabar
职位：能量棒社区主管
Age: 31
年龄：31岁
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。
Cocoa Mole, Parsons wrote in the song, is the "best Larabar I ever tasted."
她在歌中写道，可可摩尔口味是“我所吃过的最好的能量棒。”
The company responded by sending Parsons several boxes of the discontinued flavor. "I thought that'd be the end of it," says Parsons.
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。”
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。
"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。
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."
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!”
Jim Barton
吉姆巴顿
Company: David Weekley Homes
所属公司：David Weekley Homes
Best Companies rank: 13
最佳雇主公司排名：第13位
Role: Sales consultant
职位：销售顾问
Age: 51
年龄：51岁
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.
吉姆巴顿自打开始玩林肯积木（Lincoln Log）和乐高（Lego）时就喜欢上家装设计了。不过他不怎么具备当好一名建筑师所必需的数学才能。大学毕业后他先是进了广告圈，但有一次开车穿过新泽西州时，他对建筑和家装的热情又重新涌上了心头。经过一个新的住房建筑工地并和开发商聊了聊之后，巴顿突然心血来潮，决定买两块地，打算用自己的业余水平试着打造从小就有的家居梦想。
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.
这次冒险经历很值得。巴顿在其中一块地上造完自己第一座房子并在另一块地上开工后创办了自己的建筑公司，主要从事复古改造的业务。这是他实现设计创意的地方，当然数学就算了。他负责制订设计规划，一个建筑师负责执行。
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.
巴顿在东北部地区创业18年后，到了2006年，他觉得自己得离住在休斯顿的父母近些，于是他就关停公司搬了家。到了2013年，他又觉得手痒，想重返工作岗位。他的一位老朋友认为，巴顿很适合她的老东家，即住房开发商David Weekley Homes。巴顿后来回顾说：“这有点像被安排去相亲。你朋友跟你说对方有多好，但你根本不知道自己会不会也这么想。”谈了三个月后，巴顿和DWH公司觉得双方确实算是天作之合。
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公司聘请巴顿担任“自家地上造房”部门的销售顾问。他所服务的客户是那些家里有很多地，想请DWH公司来造房子的人。这份工作还是让他有机会发挥一下创意天赋，按客户的特定要求定制家居装潢。
Afton Jacobson
阿芙顿雅各布森
Company: CarMax
所属公司：车美仕
Best Companies rank: 54
最佳雇主公司排名：第54位
Role: Sales Manager
职位：销售经理
Age: 26
年龄：26岁
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年大学毕业前，雅各布森一直在为找工作而奔忙。因为拥有金融服务学位，她本来的目标是去金融公司当个咨询师。她找了好一阵都没有结果，于是决定先找个实习岗位——就是那种发薪的——以便在她继续为了理想工作奔走时能应付一下开销。
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.
后来，她在父亲的催促下上网申请了一份车美仕（CarMax）营业部的工作，工作地点在她老家——俄亥俄州代顿市。她说：“说心里话，我就觉得这份工作只是个跳板而已。”结果她五天后就被录用了。
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.
尽管她申请的是营业厅的岗位，但一个销售经理考虑到她以前暑假时卖彩票和冷饮的经验，就说服她试试销售顾问这个职位。
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.
雅各布森干了大概六个月的销售顾问后就被提拔为销售指导，专门负责培训新员工。一年多后，她又被提为销售经理培训生，到了2012年8月，她终于成了销售经理，也就是说她开始负责管理其他销售顾问了。
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.
三年多期间经过三次提拔后，这份实习工作已经成了她想毕生从事的职业。她说，本来立志进入金融服务业也是想帮助更多人，但现在这份工作是帮助客户选车并制订合适的购买计划，它已经实现了这一点。