Physics PhD trying to get into finance industry

What year of your PhD are you in? Or more specifically, what year did you enroll in the PhD, and what year are you anticipated to finish? To answer your questions:

1. no. if you're able to do theoretical physics, people will expect you to be able to pick up on financial concepts pretty quickly, regardless of past training.
2. no. waste of time since your PhD is more pedigree anyway.
3. absolutely get your PhD. you have 0 leverage without it. plus, academia will always be a back up in case you can't make it in to finance. in addition, people may think you are a quitter if you do this.

I think a number of quant-type firms will be open to you... also, you might like that kind of a job better.

Make sure you take a look at the options you laid out, pick one and then go after that. People will want to see that you know exactly what you want - i.e. quant HF, banking, corp fin for a company that works in an area related to your research.... Saying "I'm open to anything" or sounding unsure won't help with recruiting... that said, when starting to network you can be a little more open about that as you try to zero in on what you want. Asking about peoples' jobs, their day, what they see in their future, etc will help you decide.

Also, a friend's husband has a PhD in theoretical physics and was doing post-doctoral research (something on string theory, but he never liked to talk about his work... I wish he had as I stopped a physics undergrad degree when I decided I didn't want to teach/do something like med school but still enjoy the topics even though I can't keep up) while traveling the world from uni to uni... seemed like a nice gig to me. Really fit my friend's lifestyle as well... she liked languages and speaks at least 4 academically.

Anyway, he has since moved to a quant HF in I think London. He had no background in finance, just networked and had good reasons for making the move. So it is definitely possible!

Good luck!