From Wilmington, via Instacart, job-seeker gets attention of Nike execs and makes a new friend

An Instacart order came across driver Denise Baldwin's phone with specific instructions: deliver this cake to Mac Meyers at Nike's headquarters in Oregon.

The order came from a woman in North Carolina who was trying to grab the attention of the Nike executive for a future job opportunity.

Karly Pavlinac, sitting in her home in Wilmington, typed out instructions to her delivery driver in Oregon: check the cake and make sure it has my resume printed on it.

Baldwin was shocked. She opened up the cake inside Albertsons, and sure enough, Pavlinac's resume was printed on the top.

"It was pretty awesome," Baldwin said.

Pavlinac said she got the idea from a friend, who jokingly suggested that she needed to do something bold to grab the attention of the Fortune 500 companies she had her eyes on.

"He was like, 'Well, if you want to stand out and show up to a creative company, then you have to do something creative,'" she said.

But would she be able to swing it? She lived at the other end of the United States — nearly 3,000 miles from Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

The delivery

Baldwin was excited. She had never been on Nike's campus before but had always wanted to visit.

She's a single mom who drives for Instacart in between dropping off and picking up her three children.

She had never received a delivery order quite like this one, but she was sure she could deliver the cake into Mac Meyer's hands.

As Baldwin reached the security gate of Nike's headquarters, she told them her instructions.

"I'm here to deliver this cake to Mac Meyers at Nike's Valiant Lab," she told them.

Security suggested that she drop off the cake with them. But Baldwin felt uneasy about that.

She called Pavlinac to ask for more information about where she could find Mac Meyers, but Pavlinac didn't know.

"I said, 'Don't worry. I'm on the campus. I'll make sure it gets to the right person,'" Baldwin told Pavlinac over the phone.

Eventually, she was able to find out that Meyers was in the LeBron James building, where there was a large event going on with dozens of celebrities and influencers.

She walked in the front door, with her 8-month-old son in one hand and the resume cake in her other hand.

An administrator at the front offered to take the cake up to Meyers. But that wasn't going to cut it.

"I'd like to stay here until he receives it," she said. "It's really important."

So she waited until Meyers came to the front desk. Per protocol, she took a picture of the cake in Meyers’ hands and sent it to Pavlinac.

"It was awesome. She did such a great job," Pavlinac said.

"She was so thankful and gave me a really nice tip," Baldwin said.

An unlikely friendship

"Now she's my mentor," Baldwin added.

The women now talk every week, encouraging each other in searching for a job.

Pavlinac has her eyes set on somewhere big — working in a creative space as a product manager or brand manager at a large company. She told WRAL News that in addition to Nike, Airbnb and NorthFace are on her wishlist.

She's always been ambitious. Right after graduating from North Carolina State University, Pavlinac started a fitness app for celebrity trainers to monetize their social media following. She helped raise venture capital funding from Cary until her company was acquired by sports company The St. James.

"I want to see from the other side of what it is like to work at a corporate type of environment, with larger teams, and be able to use my scrappy startup skills to be able to make a difference and make things move fast in a bigger environment," she said. "And I just enjoy learning. So, you know, being in a different environment with really smart people who are the best at what they do is exciting."

Baldwin is looking for something more stable to support her family. The job search has admittedly been difficult for her been because she only has a cell phone.

But with Pavlinac help, she's confident she'll be able to get a new job.

"She got me started on LinkedIn and sent me her old laptop," Baldwin said.

Pavlinac said her cake grabbed the attention of managers at Nike, and she's been able to use it as an opportunity to network.

"Nike's a big company [and] there's only a little bit of cake to go around. Not everyone at Nike saw the cake," she said. "People in different departments started reaching out, which was really amazing. And it's great to talk to people with different backgrounds and experiences and just meet new people which is a lot of fun."

And Baldwin could possibly have a future at Nike. On Tuesday, she did a tour of campus and did an informal interview for a possible administrative position there.

But for now, the women have each other.

"She's pulling for me and I'm pulling for her. To get a better job for ourselves and for our families," Baldwin said.