Last December, Reuters reported how one innovative New Yorker’s desperate search to find a job had paid off big. Joshua Persky, known to many as the “Sandwich Board Guy,” found employment at accounting firm Weiser LLP in midtown Manhattan. Persky, who wrote for Trading Places about his search for work last year, explains how he ended up leaving Weiser to start his own business:

When I received the offer from Weiser, my wife and I were ecstatic. I had been unemployed for 10 months. We had quite a sincere Thanksgiving celebration in Omaha where she was living with our children, but they decided to remain in Omaha to finish out the school year. It was difficult to leave my family, but I returned to New York to get my feet on the ground and focus on my new job as Senior Manager, Valuation & Corporate Finance.

When I started working in December, I was treated to a second round of viral publicity and became a feel-good “Happy Ending Holiday Story.” Whereas before I had been the “Face of the American Economy”, a “Sign of the Times” and the “Sandwich Board Guy,” suddenly I was an inspirational and extreme job hunter who could give expert job hunting advice – and I did:

Be creative.
Be open to change.
Get professional help.
Redo your resume.
Figure out your brand and sell it.
Don’t give up.
Get your family on board.
Be patient.
Lower your expenses as much as possible.
Do what you need to do to keep your spirits up (exercise, eat right, meditate and/or pray).
Don’t lose hope!

It has been quite a challenge living 1,300 miles away from my wife and children. I visited them several times on weekends. They visited me during spring break and are with me now for a few weeks.

Then the group at the accounting firm where I was working underwent a restructuring. Now I’m taking my career to the next level by working for myself. Things are very different for me now than when I left my previous job and walked straight into the global economic crisis. I think the worst of the Great Recession is over, I have a much expanded network and some exciting opportunities on my plate.

As Founder of www.oracleofny.com, I am concentrating on writing, inspirational speaking, career coaching and business valuations consulting – being my own boss for a change. My wife has always wanted me to be an entrepreneur.

Die-hard UBS investors who have stayed with the bank through thick and thin are hoping new boss Oswald Gruebel (sitting) will return the Swiss icon to its former splendour thanks to a bitter medicine of thousands of new layoffs and heavy cost cuts announced on Wednesday.

But their patience is running out.

"The only reason why we are still with UBS is because hope dies last. But if this carries on, we will not tolerate it anymore," said Blandina Heyne, a UBS investor for seven years, as she and her husband came to attend the bank's annual general meeting in Zurich.

Both clients and shareholders have turned their back to Switzerland's largest bank after the crisis forced UBS to post the biggest loss in Swiss corporate history and shares plummeted to historic lows.

Shareholder anger forced former CEO Marcel Rohner to quit in February and chairman Peter Kurer (standing) was giving his last speech on Wednesday before leaving his job after just one year of what some investors say are empty promises.

"When I was little my mother used to read me one of these bedtime stories from the Grimm's brothers and she said they were the greatest fairytales ever written," shareholder Rudolph Weber says.  "She got it wrong. It was Mr Kurer who wrote the greatest fairytale."

Gruebel, a no-nonsense German who once turned around UBS' rival Credit Suisse, told the shareholder assembly the bank would post yet another loss and announced thousands of job cuts.

"I have been with UBS for almost 20 years and never thought they would disappoint me," said 68-year-old Christina Sutter.  "Despite all this talk of crisis I always had the impression that UBS's "Swissness" gave it a degree of immunity."

 - Josie Cox and Lisa Jucca

(Reuters photo: Arnd Wiegman)

The idea that a job in the government is a safe place to ride out a recession clearly doesn’t hold if you’re working for a government-owned bank. Royal Bank of Scotland, which was largely nationalized following a bailout by the British government, warned it would cut up to 9,000 job cuts over the next two years. If you’re among the people who might be affected by the news we reported here, let us know the reaction to the announcement where you work.

There’s been no official announcement but our sources tell us that IBM will cut about 5,000 jobs in the United States. The move adds similarly large cuts in the past few months, the sources said. The job cuts will account for over 4 percent of IBM’s U.S. workforce and will mostly be in IBM’s global services business, which includes outsourcing and consulting services.

An IBM spokesman declined to comment but readers close to the story are welcome to do so below.

HSBC, whose advertisements play on how one image can have different meanings in different cultures, appears to have settled on a single view of the U.S. consumer: you’re not worth the risk. The global bank, whose billboards proclaim the importance of local knowledge, said it would shut most of its U.S. consumer lending business with the loss of 6,100 jobs.

“With the benefit of hindsight, this is an acquisition we wish we had not undertaken,” HSBC Chairman Stephen Green said of its 2003 acquisition of Household, which was renamed HSBC Finance.

At Trading Places, we like to give people hit by job cuts a place to share information. So if you’re an HSBC employee, tell us what’s happening in your office.

The pain in the auto industry keeps getting worse. General Motors has just announced that it will cut its global salaried workforce to about 63,000 from 73,000 this year. The remainder of its salaried staff face pay cuts.

In the United States, approximately 3,400 of GM’s 29,500 salaried employees will be cut. The temporary pay cut for most U.S. salaried employees runs May 1 through the end of the year. Executive employees will have their base pay cut by 10 percent, with others seeing cuts of 3 percent to 7 percent.

If you’re among those likely to be affected, tell us about the mood where you work. What severance terms and other assistance is the company expected to offer? How will you cope with reduced income?

(Picture: General Motors employees hold signs and chant before a vehicle reveal during press days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, January 11, 2009. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)

UBS, the biggest banker to the rich, announced a second round of job cuts after posting the biggest annual loss in Swiss history. The cuts to investment banking jobs come on top of 7,500 jobs that the bank has already axed as a result of the economic crisis.

It’s not all bad news, however. UBS hired nearly 400 financial advisers in the United States in the last quarter and sources have told Reuters it is aggressively poaching advisers from rivals including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney.

If you work at UBS, tell us where the cuts are falling, what the mood is like and what severance you’re getting, if any. And given that the bank is still willing to hire in some sectors, give us some good news about where the opportunities lie.

Ford UK is to cut around 850 jobs by May and review its previously agreed pay offer as it grapples with the economic impact hitting the car industry, the company said on Thursday.

The news comes a week after the automaker said it was cutting some 2,500 white-collar jobs and 1,200 jobs at Ford Motor Credit. If you’re a Ford employee, tell us how the cuts are affecting you.

The following are job changes within the financial industry for Oct. 17, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.

DELOITTE FINANCIAL ADVISORY SERVICES LLP
The unit of Deloitte LLP said it is expanding its real estate consulting practice with the addition of Constantine Korologos, who will be based in New York. He is also a managing director for Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LTD
Australia’s third-largest lender hired David Goode, formerly a portfolio manager at Challenger Financial Services Group, to join its Treasury team, a market source said.

IMPAX GROUP PLC
The environmental investment company appointed Charlie Ridge as chief operating officer. Before joining Impax, Ridge was a managing director within the finance division of Deutsche Bank, most recently serving as UK Asset and Wealth Management CFO.

The following are job changes within the financial industry for Oct. 14 - 15, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.

RODMAN & RENSHAW
The U.S. investment bank named Michael G. King, Jr. to the newly created role of head of healthcare. He was previously director of research at the firm. The firm also said Christopher James, formerly a senior associate analyst working for King, had rejoined the firm and will assume esearch coverage of many of King’s stocks.

SIGNAL HILL
The Baltimore-based specialty investment banking, research and institutional brokerage firm said it has expanded its technology practice by adding Neeraj Vohra, managing director, and Henry Sage, director, to its investment banking team. Both of them will be based in the firm’s Baltimore office.

ARBUTHNOT SECURITIES
The investment banking arm of Arbuthnot Banking Group, appointed Nicholas Tulloch as the new head of corporate finance. Tulloch, who will join in January 2009, joins Arbuthnot Securities from Altium, where he was managing director on the corporate finance team, specialising in the technology sector.

BANK OF INDIA
The state-run bank said B.A. Prabhakar has taken over as its executive director with effect from Wednesday. Prabhakar was general manager with Bank of Baroda and looked after its treasury operations prior to his current appointment.

BRAVEHEART INVESTMENT GROUP PLC
The technology-focused investment firm appointed Colin Grant as its chief financial officer effective Oct. 15. Grant joins from Digital Bridges Ltd, a provider of mobile entertainment software, where he was chief financial officer and company secretary.