| ✦ The 2026 Job Hunt Recipe | Issue 0X / 14 |
|
| Issue X · Limited Edition | ✦ |
3 dream jobs. 3 final rounds. And they all said NO in one week The week I lost all three.
It made the Instagram yes possible. | |
| ✦ The Problem You'll bomb the interview you've been waiting for. |
| Dream jobs call when you're rusty. You go three months without applying. Or offers come in and you pass. | ✦ | Pay isn't enough. | | ✦ | There's an hour-plus commute. | | ✦ | You get picky. | | Interview readiness The longer you go without reps, the rustier you get. |
Then you finally get an email back from that job you dreamt about getting, and you don't even realize you're not ready. There is always one question that catches you off guard. | Better to get caught off guard in an interview you do not care about than the one you do. |
| |
| ✦ The Solution Take every interview. |
| Yes, even the one that does not pay great. Pay too low? Don't remember applying? Not sure you even want it? Take the interview anyway. You'll learn which questions you're bad at, which skills keep coming up that you don't have yet, and how interviewers react to the questions YOU ask. No YouTube video, no LinkedIn post, and no newsletter (not even this one) will teach you that. | wait ~a week | | wait ~a week | | wait ~a week | | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Final |
These are not 1-2 round jobs. Expect weeks, not days. |
|
|
| ✦ Recipe Tip The 4 questions that got me Instagram. |
| The four questions I asked in my interview. Ask, do not just answer. 1 | Is there anything else you are still unsure about that I can clarify now? | 2 | Three months in, what would make you believe hiring me was a great decision? | 3 | What did the last person in this seat do really well, and what would you want done differently? | 4 | The industry changes fast. What does your team do to stay ahead? | You don't have to say these word for word - they're a baseline. I asked all four. A good question is one that makes the interviewer actually think. |
|
| ✦ The Story I tried my best and still f**ked up. |
 | Nicholas Alexis The Chef | ✦ |
November to December: three dream interviews running at once, 12 rounds combined. | A Kardashian company for social media. Perfect fit, they wanted to rush hiring, then paused hiring. | | A hot sauce brand. I posted a mock campaign on LinkedIn and it landed me a role. At 10pm the night before, they canceled my interview. | | A fitness startup that received 10 million in funding. | The same week, all three died. I was wrecked. But those 12 rounds were the training that got me through the Instagram rounds a month later. | The reps came first. The offer came after. |
|
|
| ✦ The Odds The job market is like the lottery. |
| Is the 2026 job market the same as the lottery? Posted 22 minutes ago. 100 applicants already. The odds feel rigged before you even click. So we built a board where they are not. Every role opened and checked by a human. | Scratch to reveal Click to scratch → |
StillUnemployed.com |
|
| ✦ JobHuntRecipe.com Jobs worth the screenshot. Jobs may expire after this issue comes out |
| ★ Top Pick Tapestry Associate, Communications 1-2 Years Experience | $67-75K Apply New York, NY |
|
| This Week Bumble Graphic Designer 3+ Years Experience | $80-95K Apply New York, NY |
|
| This Week Forbes Associate Video Producer Early Career | $66.3K Apply Jersey City, NJ |
|
| This Week The New York Times Associate Manager, Paid Social 3+ Years Experience | $85-100K Apply New York, NY |
|
| Every Week Outside of NYC? Want More Roles? StillUnemployed.com | $1-250K Apply It's 100% Free |
|
|
| ✦ More About the Chef Hi, I'm Nic |
 Nicholas Alexis Content Specialist at Instagram 1 | Times Square Billboard Directed a Billboard in collab with Equinox | 2 | Liquid Death Campaign 500k+ cross-platform impressions | 3 | SiriusXM Live Feature Promoting an app I built | ✦ | Now Working at Instagram | |
|
| Questions or feedback? Just hit reply, every email lands with me. Say hi → |
|
| ✦ The 2026 Job Hunt Recipe Every Week · 14 Issues · Jun 9 → Sep 8 | | Written by Nicholas Alexis,
Content Specialist at Instagram |
|
|
