Who would you do...a start-up with? And other grad school quandaries...

“There has been an alarming increase in the number of things that I know nothing about.” A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh, 1926

There are lots of ways to approach the ‘networking’ element of graduate school. Ignoring it isn’t a sensible one.  

It’s true what Career Services tell you. One day you’ll want a job, or an employee, or an investor or an investment opportunity.

It can be useful to think of who among your classmates would answer the following questions for you. Also, this is an excellent party game / getting to know you game / way of finding out whom among your colleagues is awesome who you just might not have met yet.

Frankly, it’s the professional version of ‘who would you call to help you hide a dead body?’ Maybe you never need to answer the question, but it still helps to ask it.

Who would you work for?

Donald Rumsfeld wrote of being the White House Chief of Staff that you shouldn’t “accept the post or stay unless you have an understanding with the President that you’re free to tell him what you think ‘with the bark off’ and you have the courage to do it”. I think that’s true for almost any role that requires speaking truth to power.

The list of classmates you’d let sign your paycheck might be short or lengthy. You might never work for any of them. They mightn’t want you to work for them. It doesn’t matter. The mere exercise will help you identify the qualities you need in a great boss and a great job.

Who would you hire?

This is not the same as asking “who would you work for?”, even though they are both about which classmate you’d like to have the office next to yours. I have a deeply treasured friend, for whom I would work in a heartbeat, but wouldn’t hire, because I’m not convinced that the answer to the following question is yes:

If the two of you disagree, if you’ve given the subordinate the chance to convince you, and then you still tell them to do it your way, are you confident that they will?

Who would you do a start-up with?

I think this is a little bit like asking "who would you marry?". While I don’t have a start-up (or a marriage), I understand that both involve sticking with someone when you’re not sure you want to, making compromises and sacrifices and believing, above all else, that your whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Whose start-up would you invest in before you knew anything about it?

You know who this person is. You have no idea what they’re going to do yet, but you know it will be a raging success. If you don’t have a running list of the people you should provide seed capital to, you should get one. Also, if you don't have seed capital to provide, you should probably get some of that. Failing an amazing classmate with the next Facebook, you can always buy party dresses.

Who would you trust to invest your money?

Obviously, if you’d turned your money over to any of these Harvard grads, that would have been an error: . But there will be people you meet endlessly capable of running your money.

Who would you ask to defend you – if you were guilty? If you were not guilty?

For our HLS friends, if you are pressed into service, it might be a particularly important matter. Can your lawyer-friends be trusted to successfully bail you out? Do you choose a different friend depending on your level of guilt / innocence (if The Practice / Ally McBeal taught us nothing else, the answer to that question should definitely be yes).

In a government shutdown, who gets sent home first? Who never gets sent home?

Veep has recently dealt with the awkward ‘morning after the government shutdown’ conversation. Some people must be furloughed immediately, at which point it becomes illegal for them to communicate with other government staff about government matters. Others are permitted to stay, on the basis that their work is mission-critical or that they themselves are so capable as to be essential. Who are your critical colleagues?

(Sidenote: it’s probably a worthwhile objective to make sure you / your own role is on the “keep” list. )

Whose election campaign would you contribute the maximum to?

Three things are certain at Harvard: death, taxes and that a classmate will one day ask you for a campaign contribution. Let’s assume there’s no handy 501(c)(3). Whose campaign are you happy to tell the IRS you gave the maximum to?

Who would you leak to?

Oooh, Life-in-Lists just got topical. Whatever your views on the Snowden Affair, he represents a timely reminder that one day you might want  someone to provide a dossier of confidential information to (whether for the right reasons or the wrong ones).

Who would you allow to babysit your child?

I think this is an important test of good-person-ness and a useful sense-check against the other questions. My own view is that any name against any other question on this list should also be against this one.