Ex-UBS MD finds new job after 30 months out writing children's books

Haters who say you're as likely to find a new finance job after two years out of the market as to discover a hoard of pirate treasure in an urban park, have been proven wrong. Simon McWhirter, the ex-UBS managing director who had a go at writing 'silly children's stories' after being laid off by the bank in May 2012, has found a new job - two and a half years later.

McWhirter hasn't gone back to banking, but he has gone back. To the Big Four. 21 years after he left Coopers & Lybrand to pursue a future in banking, he's become a director in the banking and capital markets division at PWC,

McWhirter's 21-year career at UBS included time as global head of equity derivatives and commodities product control. At PWC he now works on business resilience in the banking team. "It's more projects based and I'm able to work with different clients, which is interesting after working in the same bank for a long time," he says.

As is often the case, it was networking rather than job applications that got him back into the market. "I went to an alumni event and got talking to some PWC partners about what they were interested in and what I was doing and it seemed a good fit," McWhirter tells us.

For the moment, the children's books have been left to gestate. "They're ticking over, but I'm not selling many of them.[efc_twitter text=" If I were an extremely rich author, I may not have come back to PWC, but it's a tough world and not many people make a living from writing. "]It was always an extreme long-shot," McWhirter concludes.