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."

    职务：总经理

    任职公司：康泰纳零售连锁店

    从德州农工大学（Texas A&M）取得建筑学位毕业后，约翰•阿尔宾决定反省一下。2001年，他回到家乡芝加哥，一边自我提振，一边寻找兼职工作。

    由于接受过系统的建筑学专业教育，因此阿尔宾决定在自己经常去购物的康泰纳零售连锁店（The Container Store）申请一份工作。我接受了连锁店时任经理泰瑞•威廉姆斯的面试。“她问我是否会考虑把零售业作为自己的职业。你如果问问她，她肯定说我当时回答的是：‘见鬼去吧，我才不会。’实际上，我在面试的时候从来不会用‘见鬼去吧’这样的字眼。”

    不过，阿尔宾并没有在那里工作太久，虽然他曾经承诺只要在那里工作就会全身心投入。威廉姆斯聘用了他，他说：“她把改变我的想法当成了自己的任务。”

    最终，阿尔宾开始了商店产品“elfa”的营销工作。康泰纳零售连锁店的员工会使用店铺的商品，为希望组织屋内空间的消费者提供自定义设计。而这让阿尔宾的建筑专业背景有了用武之地。他发现，自己很擅长帮助人们有效管理空间。

    突然之间，他发现自己喜欢上了这份工作。“从那以后，我一直都没有再回过学校。在这里，我找到了巨大的乐趣，这就是最好的解释。”目前，他在明尼苏达州伊代纳市担任店铺总经理。他与妻子便住在那个城市。两人正是在康泰纳零售连锁店相识。他说，他们家组织得井然有序。

    Title: General Manager

    Company: The Container Store

    After graduating from Texas A&M with a degree in architecture, John Urbin decided to do some soul-searching. In 2001, he was back in his hometown, Chicago, looking for a part-time job while he got himself together.

    Being the organized architecture major that he was, Urbin decided to apply to work at The Container Store, a place he had often shopped. He interviewed with the store's then-manager, Teri Williams. "She asked me if I would ever consider a career in retail. If you ask her, she says I said, 'Hell no,' which, I would never say 'hell' in an interview."

    Nevertheless, Urbin didn't see himself at the store for long, though he promised to give his the company his all while he was there. Williams hired him and, he says, "She made it kind of a personal mission to change my mind."

    Urbin eventually started working with the store's product "elfa." Container Store employees use the product to create a custom design for customers looking to organize spaces in their houses. Here's where Urbin's architecture background kicked in. He found he was good at helping people manage space efficiently.

    Suddenly, he was surprised to find he liked going to work. "I never went back to school, I was just having too much fun, is the best way to put it." Now, he is the general manager of the Edina store in Edina, Minn. He lives there with his wife, whom he met at The Container Store. Their house, he says, is very organized.

    职务：二手车销售部负责人

    任职公司：梅赛德斯奔驰美国公司

    莱恩•布朗宁加入梅赛德斯奔驰（Mercedes-Benz, USA）的过程可谓一波三折，历尽了千辛万苦。进入这家公司工作一直是他的梦想。

    他说：“这还得追溯到我童年时的梦想。我每年都去看车展。当时我梦想中的汽车是500SL。梅赛德斯奔驰是一家伟大的公司，这种想法深深镌刻在我脑海里。”

    布朗宁长大成人后，曾在和平部队工作过三年，主要在布基纳法索和塞内加尔提供财务顾问服务。之后他报名参加了杜克大学（Duke University）的MBA课程。

    2007年，梅赛德斯奔驰美国公司派代表参加了一年一度的全美黑人MBA大会。布朗宁也参加了会议，并向该公司代表们介绍了自己，其中包括米凯拉•索尔维诺。他希望能获得一次实习机会，但米凯拉说当时还没有这样的机会。在第二年的大会上，布朗宁又遭遇了相同的情况。当年晚些时候，梅赛德斯奔驰的代表来到杜克大学。布朗宁遇到了索尔维诺，并认出了她；他说他记得她姓名中的大写字母。

    这给她留下了深刻印象。他对索尔维诺说：“似乎每次见到您，一切都还是老样子，没有任何变化。”但这一次不一样了，梅赛德斯奔驰启动了一个项目，为不同商业领域精心挑选的几个人提供培训。布朗宁也提交了申请。

    先是申请，然后经过一次电话筛选，一次人格分析，最后是智商测试，布朗宁获邀参加最终面试。当时，他正在巴黎学习，在商学院已经完成了两年的学业。公司可以报销候选人参加面试的国内机票，但却没有针对国际航班的预算，因此布朗宁不得忍痛自己承担了返回美国的费用，参加最终的筛选。

    后来，他完成了在巴黎的学业。等他回到家时，便收到了梅赛德斯奔驰的工作邀请。“从2007年的招聘会，到最终得到工作机会。经过之前的种种，那一刻我真的非常高兴。”

    布朗宁说，SL500依然是他的“初恋”，不过带有复古式鸥翼形车门的2013款梅赛德斯奔驰SLS或许会成为他的新宠。

    Title: Pre-Owned Sales Department Supervisor

    Company: Mercedes-Benz, USA

    Ryan Browning basically had to bring back the Golden Fleece to land his job at Mercedes-Benz. But he had wanted to work there for a long time.

    "It all goes back to my boyhood dream," he says. "I went to car shows every year. My dream car at the time was a 500SL. It just cemented in my mind, okay, Mercedes-Benz is a great company."

    Fast-forward to Browning as an adult. After working in the Peace Corps for three years, doing financial advising in Burkina Faso and Senegal, Browning entered an MBA program at Duke University.

    In 2007, Mercedes-Benz USA brought representatives to the annual National Black MBA Conference, which Browning attended. He introduced himself to the company's representatives, one of which was Michaela Sorvino, about an internship, but she said there wasn't one available. The same thing happened at the conference the next year. Later that year, the Mercedes reps came to Duke. Browning walked up to Sorvino and recognized her; he said he remembered her initials.

    She was impressed. "I was like, every time I see you, there's nothing going on," he told Sorvino. But this time was different. Mercedes Benz had just started a program to train a select few in various parts of the business. Browning applied.

    One application, a phone screen, a personality profile, and an IQ test later, Browning was invited for a final interview. He was studying in Paris at the time, completing his second year at business school. The company flew candidates in for the interview, but didn't have the budget to pay for an international flight, so Browning bit the bullet and paid his own way back to the U.S. for the final stage of the process.

    He finished his coursework in Paris, and when he returned home, there was a job offer waiting for him. "After going through all that -- a career fair back in 2007, to actually getting an offer, that was a very happy moment."

    Browning still appreciates his first love, the SL500, he says, although the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS with retro gullwing doors is probably his new favorite car.

    职务：前台接待

    任职公司：Hilcorp能源公司

    2004年，阿曼达•汤普森以为自己在石油与天然气公司Hilcorp只会工作三个小时。当时，她与一家临时工中介公司签订的合同，第一个任务就是到Hilcorp的前台做半天接待员。这份工作的时间很短，可上下班的路程却很长，所以她差点儿就拒绝了。

    但她并没有，而且幸运的是，当天一份奖章的订单出了问题。Hilcorp公司CEO每个月都会对在公司工作达到一定时间的员工进行表彰。奖章就是为这些员工准备得。汤普森去公司做临时工的当天，负责安排奖章的公司却迟到了。于是，公司招聘主管詹尼斯•帕克（现在已经改名詹尼斯•桑德斯）在公司大厅足足等了45分钟。而在此期间，汤普森一直在接电话，与员工交流。在这45分钟里，桑德斯有了一些特别的发现。

    汤普森说：“第二天，我正在休斯顿东奔西走，突然接到了Hilcorp公司的电话，问我是否愿意接受一份全职工作。最初我只是到这里临时干几个小时的前台，现在这却成了我的职业。”

    Title: Receptionist

    Company: Hilcorp Energy Company

    Amanda Thompson thought she was only going to spend three hours at oil and gas company Hilcorp, back in 2004. She signed on with a temp agency, and her first assignment was to work a half-day as a receptionist at the front desk. The job was so short and the commute so long that she almost skipped it.

    But she didn't and, luckily, an order of plaques was screwed up. Every month, Hilcorp's CEO recognizes employees who've been with the company for a certain length of time. Those employees get plaques, but the day that Thompson was temping, the company that organizes the plaques was running late. That left HR recruiter Janis Parker (now Janis Sanders) waiting in the lobby for 45 minutes while Thompson took calls and spoke with employees. In those 45 minutes, Sanders noticed something special.

    "The next day I'm running around Houston, and I get a call from Hillcorp asking if I could take a full-time position," Thomson says. "I was here just to cover the desk for a few hours and since then, it's been my career."

    职务：2级雇员

    任职公司：安永会计事务所

    尼基•德蒙特很早就接触了就业市场。2006年，17岁的德蒙特便开始就读佐治亚大学（UGA）。大一过后，她便开始四处寻找进入会计行业的途径，她说自己对会计领域非常感兴趣。

    她在学校一个名为INROADS的项目中，通过学院顾问进行求职。该项目旨在帮助缺少资源的年轻人进入美国的一流公司，进而进入工商业。德蒙特称，2007年，她得到INROADS招聘人员的消息。“他们跟我说：‘安永会计事务所（Ernst & Young）的人来了，他们想跟你谈谈。’他们说：‘你看上去心中充满了渴望——虽然你还年轻。’”

    后来，德蒙特参加了安永会计事务所的新兴领袖项目，并获得了公司两年的实习机会。等到她毕业时，德蒙特在安永已经积累了几年经验，并于2011年成为公司的正式员工。

    她说：“我感觉自己这一年非常出色。我接触过事务所几个最大的客户——其中一家公司进行的是公开募股，这种经历简直太棒了。”现在她还是事务所亚特兰大分所的一名初级员工，在金融服务部门工作。

    德蒙特说，未来“我希望能为银行客户服务。在这里的日子真是太有意思了。”

    Title: Staff 2 Employee

    Company: Ernst & Young

    Nikki Dement got a jump on the job market early. She started college at UGA in 2006, when she was 17. Immediately after her freshman year, she started looking for ways to get her foot in the door in accounting, a field she says had always piqued her interest.

    She applied to jobs through her college counselor at a UGA program called INROADS, which helps underserved youth get started in business and industry at some of the top companies in the country. In May 2007, Dement says, she heard from the INROADS recruiter. "They told me, 'We have Ernst & Young, and they want to talk to you.' They said, 'you seem very eager -- you're young, but you're very eager.'"

    Dement went into Ernst & Young's emerging leader's program, and was hired on for a two-year internship at the company. By the time she graduated, Dement already had years of experience with the company, which she joined officially as an employee in October 2011.

    "I have a strong year under my belt," she says. "I've done a lot of work with the largest accounts -- one being a public offering, which was awesome." Now she's an entry-level employee in the firm's Atlanta office, working in financial services.

    In the future, Dement says, "I really want to serve banking clients. This is such an interesting time."

    职务：高级项目经理——创新中心

    任职公司：梅奥诊所

    加入梅奥诊所（The Mayo Clinic）之前，佩里•艾达赫尔是一名患者的父亲。他儿子吉克在七岁时被诊断出患有肝癌，医生的预测非常可怕。艾达赫尔说：“当时，医生告诉我们，他的生命只剩几周时间，或许只有一两个月。”他与妻子带着吉克来到了位于明尼苏达州罗切斯特的梅奥诊所。

    艾达赫尔说：“我对那里的护理真的无话可说。从没有人想过放弃。”一组医生对吉克进行了会诊。最终，小儿科肿瘤学家和病理学家梳理出一条信息，最终让他们得出结论，吉克所患癌症的类型不同于他们之前的诊断。于是，他们改变了疗程，而吉克的病情也渐渐好转。艾达赫尔说：“现在已经过去14年。吉克已经21岁了，正在读大三。他在高中是多个体育项目的全能选手。根本想不出他曾经的经历。”

    吉克康复多年后，艾达赫尔听说梅奥诊所有一个IT职位空缺，便迫不及待地提交了申请。获得聘用之后，他便可以利用自己身为一名患者父亲的经历。他说，儿子患病期间，“身为一名优秀的会计师，我妻子制作了各种电子表格。但我们还是很难及时掌握哪些疗程的费用，另外还有哪些没有支付。”于是，艾达赫尔开始将患者的访问次数整合到医疗中心的支付系统当中。

    梅奥诊所认可了他的工作，并邀请他加入诊所的创新中心。59岁的艾达赫尔目前是该中心的一名高级工程经理，负责开发程序，帮助老年人安度晚年，独立生活更长时间。他说：“我欠这里太多太多。”

    Title: Senior Project Manager - Center for Innovation

    Company: The Mayo Clinic

    Before Perry Erdahl worked at the Mayo Clinic, he was the father of a patient. His son Jake was diagnosed with liver cancer at seven years old, and the prognosis was dire. "There was a point in time where they told us he only had a few weeks to maybe a month or two to live," Erdahl says. He and his wife took Jake to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

    "I just can't say enough about the care. Nobody ever gave up," says Erdahl. A team of doctors worked together to treat Jake. Ultimately, the pediatric oncologist and pathologist teased out a piece of information that led them to believe that Jake had a different kind of cancer than they originally thought. They changed the course of treatment, and Jake got better. "That was 14 years ago," says Erdahl. "He's 21 now. He's a junior in college. He was a multi-sport athlete in high school. You would never know what he went through."

    Some years after Jake's recovery, Erdahl heard about an IT job opportunity at the Mayo, and was eager to apply. Once he was hired, he was able to use his experience as the parent of a former patient. When his son was sick, he says, "My wife, who is a very competent accountant, had a whole set of spreadsheets. We had a hard time tracking which procedures she had paid for and which ones she hadn't." So Erdahl started incorporating a patient's visit number into the medical center's payment system.

    The Mayo recognized his work, and invited Erdahl to join the clinic's Center for Innovation. At 59, he's a senior project manager at the center, where he develops programs to help senior citizens age better and remain independent longer. He says, "I owe the organization an awful lot."

    职务：高级劳动力规划分析师和诉讼与赔偿顾问

    任职公司：联合服务汽车协会

    唐纳德与塞西莉亚•巴特勒在德州科珀斯克里斯蒂的一次跑步比赛中相识。两人都是劲头十足的选手。唐纳德是美国海军的一名现役军官，塞西莉亚则在美国联合服务汽车协会（USAA）工作。2006年，海军少校唐纳德退役后便加入了预备役部队，并在美国联合服务汽车协会从事劳动力市场分析工作。

    而在这家银行工作五年之后，海军通知他必须前往阿富汗服役。他说，上前线是一个巨大的未知数，但联合服务汽车协会仍然保证会保留他的职位，直到他从前线归来。

    “我跟许多人都这么说，在前线服役期间，美国联合服务汽车协会对我的支持甚至多于海军。”当时，他的上司们第一时间关切他上前线的事情。他出发之前，上司们问他是否需要时间与家人团聚，还帮他整理好了财产。“我当时的第一个念头是：‘他们很清楚的知道在军队是什么情况。这一点让我非常感动。我的角色过渡也随之变得非常简单。’”

    唐纳德离开期间，公司对塞西莉亚也提供了支持。联合服务汽车协会为在前线服役的军人配偶成立了一个支持团队。塞西莉亚说：“如果我有任何担忧，都可以与其他人讨论。”

    一年后，唐纳德从前线返回。当时，联合服务汽车协会再次为他提供了便利。公司甚至为这对夫妇举办了一个“欢迎回家”的派对。

    塞西莉亚说，到目前为止，联合服务汽车协会让她达到了一直渴望的生活质量。与唐纳德相识多年以来，她一直保持着跑步的习惯。她曾参加过多次马拉松比赛，包括著名的波士顿马拉松。她说：“我在午饭时间也会挤出时间跑步。在联合服务汽车协会为我们提供的好处中，这只是一个很小的例子。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Title: Senior Workforce Planning Analyst and Litigation and Claims Advisor

    Company: USAA

    Donald and Cecilia Butler met at a race in Corpus Christie, Texas. Both are avid runners. Don was an active-duty officer in the Navy and Cecilia worked for the USAA. So when Don left the Navy in 2006 as a lieutenant commander, he joined the reserves and took a job working for the USAA doing labor market analytics.

    Five years after he started working for the bank, the Navy informed him that he would have to be deployed to Afghanistan. Going into combat was a big unknown, he says, but USAA had assured him that his job would be waiting for him when he came home.

    "I say this to a lot of people, but the USAA was more supportive of my deployment than the Navy was." His managers spoke with him immediately, asked if he needed time off to spend time with his family before leaving to serve, and helped him square away his finances while he would be gone. "The first thing I thought to myself is, 'They get it, they understand what it's like to be in the military. That impressed me. And the transition was just as easy as it could be.'"

    The company also supported Cecilia while Don was gone. The USAA offers support groups for military spouses at home while their partners are deployed. "If there were any concerns that I had, I could discuss them," Cecelia says.

    When Don returned a year later, the USAA eased his transition. The company even threw a "welcome home" party for the couple.

    To this day, Cecilia says, the USAA helps her realize the quality of life she desires. She hasn't quit running in the years since she met Don. She has run several marathons, including the prestigious race in Boston. "I squeeze in my running on the lunch break," she says, "and that's just a small example of the things that USAA offers."