The sweetest job in the world: This company offers $78,000 a year to try candy while sitting on your couch

A Modern Willy Wonka Will Give A Candy Factory (2020) 1:06

New York (CNN Business) --

A Canadian candy company is offering a very sweet deal.

Candy Funhouse, an online retailer of confectionary goodies, from chocolate bars to gummies to licorice, is looking to hire its new candy director.

What does it offer?

$78,000 a year and work from home.

• The job of your dreams?

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Duties include: "running the candy board meetings, being the main taste tester...and all the fun stuff."

Several thousand candidates have already applied for the job, which was posted on LinkedIn in July, CEO Jamal Hejazi said.

He said he's been surprised by the number of "golden ticket"-themed apps and elaborate videos of entire families offering to share the tasting duties and salary.

But Hejazi also sees the attraction.

"Imagine the best memories of him being around candy and having that every day at work," he said.

Candy Funhouse, based outside Toronto, is run by a quartet of siblings in their 20s and 30s who grew up in the area and whose parents owned donut shops and a local restaurant.

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"My brother Mo, a fan of sweets, founded it in 2018 and my mother was employee No. 2," said Hejazi.

He added that he and a younger sister and brother joined the firm later.

The family hoped to differentiate their company from other blockbuster online and brick-and-mortar competitors like Mars, Hershey, and Amazon with an "odd" mix of products, no minimum orders ("we'll sell a lollipop"), and a strong push in social networks.

Sales in 2021, boosted substantially by the pandemic, were "just under $15 million. I'm not kidding," Hejazi said.

The family retains 90% of the property.

The company said the candy director position is open to applicants as young as five, though parental permission is likely to be required.

Many parents have filmed their child completing the application and posted it online.

The company has 340,000 followers on Instagram and three million on Tik-Tok, including a Kardashian, Hejazi said, declining to specify which one.

Right now, the company is gearing up for Halloween, its biggest sales period last year.

"We have 40% of our stock" so far, Hejazi said.

Last week, candy giant Hersheys reported that it will struggle to meet Halloween-related demand this year.

Hejazi also pointed out that reports on social media that the sweets director will be required to eat 3,500 sweets per month are incorrect.

(That number represents the different varieties the company stocks.)

"That would be 117 a day," Hejazi said.

"That's a lot."

Sweet