Last week, The NYT’s DealBook blog highlighted a guy that we here at HW can’t help but root for: his name? Joshua Persky, a former i-banker for Houlihan Lokey — the New York-based investment bank was named “Firm of the Year” last month by trade publication The M&A Advisor, but like others has been shedding staff. From the NYT:

Persky, a former investment banker for Houlihan Lokey, has been looking for work for the past six months. But nothing “has gelled yet,” Mr. Persky told DealBook. “So I decided to get a little more creative and aggressive and humiliate myself a little and hit the street.” No, Mr. Persky isn’t pounding the pavement and going door-to-door. He is standing on Park Avenue handing out resumes to passersby wearing a sandwich board that says, “Experienced MIT Grad For Hire” with his name and contact information.

You’ve got to admire the willingness to do something different, even if it may appear desperate on his part. But the DealBook story suggests that there isn’t a hint desperation on Persky’s part — and we can’t help but pull for the guy. We’re sure that behind the snickers of some passers-by, there are more than a few out-of-work i-bankers kicking themselves privately for having less cajones than Persky. And if it doesn’t work? Persky told the Times he’d return to Nebraska and reinvent himself. But we’d prefer to look at it this way: how often does a guy’s job search land him national press coverage? Something good has to come of that. Our naive and stubborn belief in humanity demands it.