Financial Engineering

Several others have commented recently on a trend of bright minds leaving science to do, of all things, financial engineering.

I've met people who either made this leap or were thinking about it, and now the phenomenon has reached out to touch me. As part of my fishing for a job (in academic science or outside it), I recently threw in an application to a Wall Street finance firm. "What the heck," I said to myself, not expecting much to come of it. I got a telephone interview. I have no background in finance, but they don't care: they want people who can think abstractly.

As it turns out, I won't be going to Wall Street any time soon. Though parts of the interview went well, I was a bit rusty on questions of the "OK, so let's say you toss a fair coin five times..." variety. Still, by giving me a telephone interview and an hour of their time, they showed more interest in me than any academic institution in my field has shown lately (or seems likely to show any time soon). What does that say about my country's priorities?