The Kitchen where you do the cooking

Show some work, do some talking and get that job.

Every beautiful thing makes you stop and look twice.

The shade of blue, the pattern on the edges, the material it’s built from, and in the best cases, you don’t analyse it, you just love it.

You love a good story for the same reason. It makes you feel something. One day Steven Spielberg is making a movie, and the next, some kid from Ohio is doing the same, having learned the craft frame by frame from Spielberg’s own work.

Our work is no different. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

You say you’re a brand manager. Your resume says you “strategised XYZ to achieve ABC, resulting in a 43% lift in brand visibility.” Okay. How am I suppose to differentiate you when there are 20 other applicants who have claimed the same things? How am I supposed to believe you? I can’t see the thinking, the drafts, the version that failed before the one that worked. Your LinkedIn is bare because you’ve decided that the JP Morgan logo is doing the talking for you.

But here’s the thing everyone in hiring already knows and nobody says out loud: working somewhere impressive is not the same as being good at your job.

I believe you should design your work portfolio like the way you would design your kitchen compartments - the pastel green, the storage doors , the window on the upper right end, all coming together. The relief of walking in and just knowing: sugar's here, tea's there, the cookies are in the jar by the window. That ease is exactly what a recruiter feels scrolling through a portfolio that's actually organised, the full trajectory of the work, proof attached, real decisions laid bare instead of summarised into a stat.

Here’s the cardinal truth - nobody wants to hire a man totally dependent on AI, such a man who is lost if Claude is dead for a day. And nobody wants the opposite either, the man who thinks plastering his resume with every AI tool on the market makes him desirable. Neither extreme is the flex you think it is. What they want is someone who knows when to use AI and when to override it. Anyone can prompt their way to a draft. Knowing which part of that draft is wrong, and why, is the actual skill.

So if you're a millennial who feels like you've lost touch, relax. You don't have to plaster every tool on your resume to stay relevant. Learn a few that actually help, know where they fit in your work, and leave it there. Most people think they have to use AI everywhere just to prove they're good at their job. Nah. You need to know where it has a place, for what, and then use it first as a creativity enhancer, because nothing it does can outweigh your ten years of experience.

In simple words what I am telling is, “Alex, make a portfolio or build a social media presence where you talk about your work. Your resume will only get you so far, especially if you want to work for early stage startups. You need to show your work. Your LinkedIn is not just there for you to stalk your college roommate. Make it your canvas. Post about what you're actually doing at work, what failed and why, your results and how you got there. Don't wait for the Friday lunch with Josh to debrief all of it. Just say it out loud to your 800 followers. You never know when one of them has a friend of a friend who's hiring.”

Now you don’t have to build the cabinets from scratch, though. A lot of people already have, and they’ve left the blueprints lying around. If Framer’s your thing, there are 14 free templates floating around built specifically for this. And no, you don’t have to be a designer to use one. Its 2026 and every profession needs little bit of more showcase cause every profession has little bit of more competition and applicants.

If you live in Notion the way some people live in their group chat, click here, someone's already done the compartmentalising for you.

And if Figma is your jam but you don't know where to start, there's a stash of templates here too. Pick the one that looks like your kitchen or just take inspiration and build on top of it to make it truly yours.

While you're at it: 7 jobs worth your Monday afternoon

Now I won’t just tell you make a portfolio and keep it safely in your draft. So here are few jobs you can apply to while having your coffee this morning.

1. Cartesia — International Growth Lead. SF, Series A, voice AI built by ex-Stanford researchers. Own how they win outside the US. If you've ever wanted to be the reason a company exists in three new markets, here you go.
2. Concourse — Strategy & Operations. NY, Series A, AI agents for corporate finance teams. Early enough that "strategy & ops" basically means "whatever's broken this week, fix it."
3. Adaptive Security - Senior Account Executive. This is a remote role where you’ll work closely with leadership, marketing, product, and customer success. If you’re excited to sell a product that actually wows prospects, and to be part of a tight-knit team building something big from the ground up, this is the opportunity.
4. Mercor — Enterprise AI Lead. SF or NY, Series C, $10B valuation. You'd sit at the intersection of sales, strategy, and "explaining AI to people who sign big checks." Good fit if you like being in the room where it happens.
5. Valerie Health - Founder’s Office. SF, Series A, AI front office for independent healthcare providers. This role reports directly to the CEO and is designed for high-agency operators who want broad scope, high ownership, and direct exposure to company-building at a rapidly scaling AI-native startup.
6. Tabs- Software Engineer, AI/ML. NY, Series A, AI-native revenue platform for modern finance and accounting teams. They are looking for product obsessed, creative folks with proven track record in ownership and building.
7. Loop - Strategy and Operations Associate. Chicago, Logistics data platform. They are looking for someone to work at the intersection of customer's business problems, supporting product development and management.

If nothing here fits, check their career pages anyway, most of these companies are hiring for more than just the one role listed.

Now go show some work.

To getting jobs and appraisals,

Team AI+