9 ms·

I got my biomedical engineering PhD, and was a neurology professor at a top children's hospital doing brain/epilepsy research for a few years. Literally my drea

I got my biomedical engineering PhD, and was a neurology professor at a top children's hospital doing brain/epilepsy research for a few years. Literally my dream job for most of my life. I left it two years ago due to many of the reasons listed, and got a job going quant/algorithmic trading at a prop firm. I have never been happier, it is a hell of of a lot less stressful, I may actually pay off my student loans before I retire, we just bought a house, and obviously don't regret it for a second. Most of my old friends at my old job are jealous; they have psych or bio backgrounds, and have more or less hit their ceilings in terms of where that skill set can take them. For engineers who know how to code (I was a core contributer to www.bci2000.org for a decade+), math is math, and it doesn't matter if it is doing real time processing of brain signals or market data.

deleted 10y ago
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aswanson 10y ago
Did you explicitly search for a quant job or did it happen opportunistically?
- jawilson2 10y ago
  Pretty organically. Several neuroscience guys who did my kind of research got into finance/trading as well.
JDiculous 10y ago
Doesn't it feel like a waste of your talents to have society employing you full-time to make rich people richer via gambling in the financial markets rather than something more beneficial to society? I don't blame you at all (I'm sure your quality of life is magnitudes of order better, and I'd do the same in your position) and this isn't personal at all, it just pains me that our brightest graduates are working in finance rather than something like curing cancer.
- aswanson 10y ago
  The market set a cost in payoff in terms of quality of life and remuneration for both roles. He made the rational choice for himself and his family. Also, there are former financial engineers like David Shaw that have taken their earnings to literally try to cure cancer.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    One might argue that the market fails to price (and compensate) information goods efficiently or accurately. http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/japan/japan.html#SECTION00030000000000000000 http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/japan/japan.h...
    - aswanson 10y ago
      I'd agree with that. I don't believe in the efficient market hypothesis. The "market" given his limited information, professorship salary, and the compensation offered him to do other work clearly showed a large spread which he was rational to exploit. I also believe society as a whole is being shortsighted in creating such a wide spread, but its not within his power to correct it; it's societies failure to think long term and his duty is to his family first.
- reverend_gonzo 10y ago
  Do you ever feel that maybe you shouldn't talk about things you don't understand? Working a prop trading firm is nowhere near "making rich people richer via gambling in the financial markets". Furthermore, the majority of software/engineering jobs out there are not doing "something more beneficial to society". How many companies are really just ad-driven, marketing-driven. Yes, it would be nice if the entire world could focus on "something like curing cancer", but other things need to get done. And the majority of people have bills to pay. I am very similar to the OP, except I bailed halfway through the PhD, because I realized that, in academia, I will work 80 hours a week for $40k, or I can go into finance and work half that and make multiples more. I can now donate/spend my money to causes like "curing cancer" or "making art" and let somebody who really wants to devote their life to that craft do so.
esac 10y ago
I think i'm about to follow your academical steps, can i ask you a few questions by mail? (the one i found is for an (ex?) UC professor)
- jawilson2 10y ago
  Sure! That sounds about right for the email, but I use a gmail account now.
leggomylibro 10y ago
Hey, we used bci2000 as undergraduates to run a little DIY BCI club - thanks for all of the work on it! I'm kind of surprised to hear that being a quant is less stressful than being a research professor, though. I've heard that biology especially is a very "publish or perish"-y environment, but I guess I assumed that once people had a few prominent papers under their belts they might be trusted to work on something longer-term.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- jawilson2 10y ago
  Glad to hear it! It was/is and awesome project. I still help present at some of the workshops, when I get a chance.

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aswanson 10y ago

Did you explicitly search for a quant job or did it happen opportunistically?

jawilson2 10y ago
Pretty organically. Several neuroscience guys who did my kind of research got into finance/trading as well.

JDiculous 10y ago

Doesn't it feel like a waste of your talents to have society employing you full-time to make rich people richer via gambling in the financial markets rather than something more beneficial to society? I don't blame you at all (I'm sure your quality of life is magnitudes of order better, and I'd do the same in your position) and this isn't personal at all, it just pains me that our brightest graduates are working in finance rather than something like curing cancer.

aswanson 10y ago
The market set a cost in payoff in terms of quality of life and remuneration for both roles. He made the rational choice for himself and his family. Also, there are former financial engineers like David Shaw that have taken their earnings to literally try to cure cancer.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  One might argue that the market fails to price (and compensate) information goods efficiently or accurately. http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/japan/japan.html#SECTION00030000000000000000 http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/japan/japan.h...
  - aswanson 10y ago
    I'd agree with that. I don't believe in the efficient market hypothesis. The "market" given his limited information, professorship salary, and the compensation offered him to do other work clearly showed a large spread which he was rational to exploit. I also believe society as a whole is being shortsighted in creating such a wide spread, but its not within his power to correct it; it's societies failure to think long term and his duty is to his family first.
reverend_gonzo 10y ago
Do you ever feel that maybe you shouldn't talk about things you don't understand? Working a prop trading firm is nowhere near "making rich people richer via gambling in the financial markets". Furthermore, the majority of software/engineering jobs out there are not doing "something more beneficial to society". How many companies are really just ad-driven, marketing-driven. Yes, it would be nice if the entire world could focus on "something like curing cancer", but other things need to get done. And the majority of people have bills to pay. I am very similar to the OP, except I bailed halfway through the PhD, because I realized that, in academia, I will work 80 hours a week for $40k, or I can go into finance and work half that and make multiples more. I can now donate/spend my money to causes like "curing cancer" or "making art" and let somebody who really wants to devote their life to that craft do so.

esac 10y ago

I think i'm about to follow your academical steps, can i ask you a few questions by mail? (the one i found is for an (ex?) UC professor)

jawilson2 10y ago
Sure! That sounds about right for the email, but I use a gmail account now.

leggomylibro 10y ago

Hey, we used bci2000 as undergraduates to run a little DIY BCI club - thanks for all of the work on it! I'm kind of surprised to hear that being a quant is less stressful than being a research professor, though. I've heard that biology especially is a very "publish or perish"-y environment, but I guess I assumed that once people had a few prominent papers under their belts they might be trusted to work on something longer-term.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
jawilson2 10y ago
Glad to hear it! It was/is and awesome project. I still help present at some of the workshops, when I get a chance.