This is Nick. This is Jack. And Happy Hanukkah – Because this year’s holiday carries more than ever. The festival of light in a moment that feels dark. And the unsung hero of Hanukkah: The jelly donut known as “Sufganiyah.” Few things can unite us like food and few things are as delicious as this Jewish jelly-injected jewel. Sorry dreidel, it’s not personal…it’s the powdered sugar.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe here to get TBOY 3x/week every week.

1) McDonald’s Surprise Nostalgia Chain

A brand new beverage-focused chain just landed in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It’s called CosMc — straight out of the McDonald’s universe. Churro frappes, backyards… the Midwest has it made.  

• Who/what is CosMc: The cute orange alien is a second-fiddle McD’s mascot that is the name and face of the new chain. Stand down, Grimace. 

But this is Fast Drink, not Fast Food. Get it right, or get sent to Mars. This spinoff isn’t taking on Burger King, it’s taking on Starbucks. Let’s look at the menu:

• 🥤 13 aggressive beverages: Blueberry Ginger Boast, S’mores Cold Brew, and customizable with boba, syrups, energy, and Vitamin C shots. 

• 🥶 Served cold: Because ¾ of Starbucks sales are from cold drinks, McD’s is Stealing Like an Artist (IYKYK). 

• 🎨 Customizable too: An extra pump of s'mores syrup is more profitable for CosMc. 

• 👯 Like Starbs: There’s not as much food on the menu as beverages. Go for the frappuccino, leave with the peanut butter donut holes. 

CosMc’s whole menu is designed for Instagram — It’s the first fast food (or drink) chain made for TikTok.

The Takeaway →

The secret to successful spin-offs: be cousins, not siblings. McCafe is McDonald’s sister coffee chain, but it’s stopped growing because it’s too similar to McDonalds coffee. Whereas CosMc is more different from the OG chain than alike, like a cousin. The slanted golden arch and use of a D-list McD’s character make it still part of the family… but CosMc’s different enough to be its own entity.

2) “There’s Homework” — Sincerely, Hiring Teams 

New job trend: Employers are adding “take-home assignments” to the hiring process. Projects, papers, presentations — Sounds like college homework. 

Some examples of pre-work, work that’s included in a job application process: 

• Software engineers…have to complete a coding project.

• Copy editors…have to write a 6-page paper.

• Consultants… must deliver a 12-minute PowerPoint analysis.

Turns out take-home assignments like this are surging: The number of job apps with a take-home element are up 87% since 2019, according to Glassdoor.

• Audition vs. Interview: The pre-work work is longer too — Bloomberg profiled one interviewee who had to role-play as CEO, and had to record a theoretical customer Zoom call…camera on 😦.

• Pro tip for hiring teams: Pay candidates for the work assigned…unless you want an angry Glassdoor review. 

The Takeaway →

The No. 1 trick to work hiring is homework. Studies show that the traditional interview process is flawed. The “take-home-work” method is actually the most effective interview tool — for both the company and the applicant. Doing a sample shows the employer if the applicant can do the work. And it shows the applicant if they like the work. 

• It’s worth the wait: Fire fast, hire slow — Our No. 1 rule of hiring.

• Problems arise: When a simple assignment turns into free labor.  

• The solution: Make the assignment a reasonable length of time or pay for it. Because in this economy, no one should work for free.

On the Pod…

🎮  GameStop just sneakily announced something Wall Street is calling “alarming” — the CEO was just told to buy stocks with company $$ (more background info in the movie Dumb Money). To hear about how GameStop isn’t just a video game company anymore, listen to today’s pod.

Here’s what else you need to know today —

🔍 Google just unveiled Gemini, their ChatGPT competitor — Google’s most capable AI yet can understand text, images, video, audio. The stock jumped 5% on the news, and so did Sam Altman. 

💊 President Biden warned pharmaceutical companies that the cost of drugs is too high. If prices don't come down, the government will cancel patents of taxpayer-funded meds to let competition in. 

👗 Rent the Runway just enjoyed its 1st ever-quarterly profit. Return-to-office has more women switching up their OOTD. Meanwhile, we have worn the same crewneck all week…

🫢 The National Retail Federation just admitted a mistake: It over-reported the amount of theft at retail stores from organized crime. CEOs had been blaming crime for poor results, when it might have just been their own performance issues (just like Target).

👀 An estimated 5% of remote workers are “double dipping,” according to McKinsey. Reply to this email if you’re two-timing. We need deets. 

🌯The woman who threw food at a Chipotle worker was sentenced to 1 month in jail and 2 month in a fast food job. The best sentence yet.

And one more thing. What’s a Hanukkah tradition ya gotta’ share? 

—Nick & Jack