No, you are not dreaming. Yes, you did hear that correctly. The confectionery group Ferrero–which makes Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and Kinder Bueno products–wants to hire people to test out their products.
The job posting was first uploaded to Italy’s Open Job Metis website and although it’s written in Italian, some kind people have translated the advertisement for us. Ferrero is searching for “60 sensory judges for tasting activities of confectionery products.” The company defines the optimal candidate for this position as someone who wants to learn “how to taste cocoa, hazelnut powder and other semi-finished sweet products” since those are being used in their desserts. I was afraid that they’d be looking for people who studied food science and had fancy graduate degrees or something, but an interest in eating chocolate is the only requirement to apply? That, I have. Therefore, I am already qualified and you probably are, too.
The employees who are chosen to sample the sweets will be working from the Ferrero headquarters located in Alba, Italy and the job kicks off with a three-month-long paid training where you will “educate [your] sense of smell” and learn how to formally evaluate food products. Several finalists will be chosen for a more permanent position to keep testing out chocolate-based products.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgHepokBp8p/?taken-by=nutella
It sounds a little too good to be true… Because it is. Wonderful as it may sound, there are a couple of drawbacks to this job.
One is that if you’re hired permanently, your contract will only be for four hours a week–which is a lot of time to be eating chocolate, for sure, but probably not enough time to earn the money you’ll need to support yourself. Unless you have some savings to fall back on, you’ll need to get another job in order to make ends meet in order to supplement the smaller income from your Nutella-tasting career. Another challenge is the language barrier; people who can speak Italian, at least conversationally, will have an edge over people who can’t. Another thing to consider is that if you’re eating Nutella products constantly, you might grow tired of them.
Hahaha just kidding about that last one. How could you ever grow tired of Nutella? Getting paid to eat chocolate in Italy with extremely flexible hours sounds like a pretty fantastic deal to me. Honestly, I’m tempted to send in my resumé right now.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl6zKiNB7dH/?tagged=ferrerorocher
Ferrero has warned the public that there has been a lot of interest in this position (unsurprising) and that the positions will all be taken by September, which is when the training begins. So if you want to live out your wildest dreams and get hired to enjoy various desserts, get your application in ASAP, brush up on your Italian, and hope for the best!