If you don’t wan to get bogged down in details, read the overview by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, in the June 15 Washington Post. Among other things, the proposed reforms will raise capital and liquidity requirements for all financial institutions, subject all derivatives to regulation, and create a mechanism for dismantling failing financial institutions.

In short, the administration is staking future financial stability on a much larger regulatory role for government, an approach advocated by Moss. “Government is a necessary and powerful entity for helping us solve some of these problems,” says Moss. But grumbling from some conservatives about creeping socialism, the administration is not interested in supplanting private markets, Summers declared in a recent speech. President Obama has been clear on two key points, said Summers:

• The first is an unequivocal recognition that we only act when necessary to avert unacceptable — and in some cases dire — outcomes.
• The second… is that any intervention go with, rather than against, the grain of the market system. Our objective is not to supplant or replace markets. Rather, the objective is to save them from their own excesses and improve our market-based system going forward.

Who, what, where, when, and why….we’d appreciate any information that will help us identify what’s going on in this photograph plucked from the archives of Baker Library.

Please contact us at bulletin@hbs.edu, or HBS Alumni Bulletin, Teele Hall, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163.

Thank you!

Who, what, where, when, and why….we’d appreciate any information that will help us identify what’s going on in this photograph plucked from the archives of Baker Library.

Please contact us at bulletin@hbs.edu, or HBS Alumni Bulletin, Teele Hall, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163.

Thank you!

A lunchtime “Beyond the Job Bank” session in Spangler Auditorium with Jodi R.R. Smith, president of “etiquette consulting” firm Mannersmith, taught me otherwise. Smith, whose advice has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Washington Post, was most recently interviewed on the CBS Early Show about holiday tipping in a recession. In no-nonsense, rapid-fire style, the neatly-coiffed brunette whipped through the many sticky wickets that can plague a job-hunting MBA, answering perennial questions asked at earlier HBS appearances. Not surprisingly, many of the questions were generated by that odd ritual, the recruiting event. Her visit was sponsored by MBA Career Services.

“You really have to be on your game in a recessionary economy,” Smith cautioned a gathering of about fifty students. “Make the recruiter’s job as easy as possible. They’re just trying to figure out who to bring back for an interview.”

One of the first student questions showed that HBSers experience the same basic social dilemmas we all do: “Do I need to wear a suit and tie?”

“I always answer that with another question,” said Smith. “Do you want the job? An event at Fenway Park or someplace similar is the obvious exception.”

“How do I eat and drink at company presentations and receptions?”

“Don’t,” Smith advised. “Eat in advance, or afterward.” Your drink is a prop that you hold in your non-dominant hand.” Yes, do hold a glass of seltzer, but only for use as a prop to help maintain what Smith describes as “an open body stance.” No crossed arms (common for women) and definitely no fidgety hands in pockets (common for men).

Other tips? Approach with confidence. Introduce yourself with a piece of information that will help jog the recruiter’s memory later. Leave an event earlier, rather than later. Don’t linger and give a recruiter some reason to decide he or she would rather not see you again. “Understand your goal,” Smith counseled. “It’s to be invited back, not to get a job offer on the spot.”

The etiquette of thank-you notes was also discussed. An e-mailed missive is okay, but Smith made a strong case for the old-fashioned, handwritten communication delivered via snail mail as a way to “float to the top” and set yourself apart from the herd. “Write the note so that there is no obligation to respond,” Smith cautioned. “Don’t ask questions.”

Why all the fuss about such small details, anyway? “Observable social behaviors are signals of our competence,” she said simply. “I want you to be your best self: assertive, yet deferential and polite.”

After Smith’s presentation I overheard a few skeptical students wondering if a recruiter who essentially lives on the road would pick up his or her office mail (and any snail-mailed thank-you notes) in a timely fashion. Others wondered at her advice to mention personal interests that had come up in conversation (maybe the recruiter owns and breeds Portuguese water dogs, for example) in any follow-up correspondence. Wasn’t that being too familiar? My sense is that the students weren’t buying every word of Smith’s advice. But in this economy, they were more than willing to hear her out. Politely.