Trading Places

A time for change – part II

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.

Banks for the wealthy still hiring in Asia

New York City Comptroller William Thompson has increased his forecast for the number of securities industry workers who could be laid off in the city to 35,000 from 25,000, but banks in Asia are still looking to bulk up. Top brass speaking at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit this week said their expansion plans for Asia are largely intact.

Joseph Poon, who heads the Private Wealth Asia division of Australia’s Macquarie Group, said its recently set-up Asian private banking unit will hire another 30-35 client advisers in the next three to five years.

Marcel Kreis, head of Asia-Pacific private banking for Credit Suisse, said the credit crisis has not derailed plans to expand its private bank in Asia, where it could boost its team by as much as 80 percent in three years.

UBS is adding staff at a slower rate but is ready to pounce on experienced talent. “Even if we wanted to hire a lot of people there are not that many good people in the market,” said Kathryn Shih, chief executive for UBS’s wealth management business in the Asia-Pacific. “Normally into the second year of the crisis you start getting good people.”

Picture: Marcel Kreis, Credit Suisse Managing Director and Head of Private Banking for Asia-Pacific, speaks during an interview at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Singapore October 13, 2008. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Wall Street quakes shake New York social scene

NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) – New Yorkers who frequent Gotham’s most lavish parties fear the good times are over. The economic downturn of the past year left many of the city’s richest unscathed. But the swift demise of some of Wall Street’s most historic firms has erased immense wealth and challenged a sense of security for even the moneyed classes.

“It’s the end of an era,” said party-goer Melissa Berkelhammer at an event at New York’s Plaza Hotel this week. “Everything was going so sky high that everyone had to keep redefining what luxury was.”

The reality check may even affect the way the city’s top socialites appear in public, regardless of whether their own billions are safe.

“Being an unemployed heiress and going to a party and wearing a pretty dress is not the image people want to see right now,” said Remy Stern, founder of Cityfile.com, which profiles people it believes are the city’s most influential.

David Patrick Columbia, editor of the New York Social Diary website, which chronicles the city’s wealthiest and their satellites, said: “We’ve entered a hurricane, maybe combined with a monsoon and cyclone.”

“We save nothing, so we’re not at all prepared,” he said.

The turmoil on Wall Street has become the topic du jour among New York City’s movers and shakers, Stern said.