Life Science Phd student to ER analyst?
I'm a computational biology and molecular biophysics PhD student at Rutgers. While the work is certainly fascinating, I'm not interested in slaving away at a post-doc or going into academia. Job prospects as a researcher are okay with salaries starting around 50k and capping out at 120k.
The long term outlook is questionable with the influx of H1B visas and uncertainty with federal funding.
I can program in R/C/C++/C# 4/F#/Python/PHP.
Based on salaries listed online, it seems I could get at least 2x the pay starting out working in finance as opposed to doing research.
I'm looking at breaking into ER or S&T. Anyone have any suggestions?
The program has a Master's exit option. Should I leave with a Masters or stick it out to a PhD?
Are there any other life science PhD students who've had luck breaking into finance or decided it wasn't worthwhile?
hi, if i were you, i would complete my phd at first. if finance doesn't work, you can still fall back on your phd.
as for equity research, I do know people with phds in life sciences who work in ER, mostly covering pharmaceuticals as you can imagine.
the salaries in ER are, however, not as high as you might think unless you get into a BB or a very top non-BB ER team. you can earn more than a prof in ER ofc, but the starting salary in ER is lower than IBD, for instance.
as for trading, that is definitely an option. you can program and you have a scientific background and are very quantitative, which will definitely turn out to be useful.
especially the programming part shouldnt be underestimated, as trading is becoming increasingly computer based.
a friend of mine got a phd in physics. he didnt want to work for a tech firm and didnt want to for in academia, either. with a physics phd, besides academia and technology risk management/ quantitative analysis at a bank or actuarial work at an insurer were options, but he didnt want that, either.
he applied for an S&T internship, and got a full-time offer as a derivatives trader. he could have become a quant, but he said he wanted to do trading. and even though he is more quantitative than necessary for trading (you certainly need a phd in physics or maths to be become a quant, but certainly not for trading, they hire traders often out of undergrad), he got his trading job.
so long story short: yes, you can definitely go into ER or trading with a phd in life sciences. another option would be consulting btw. they hire phds from any discipline, but usually they prefer STEM subject (so people like u)
good luck!
@UK2013plus, Thanks for the reply! I'll stick out my phd program.
My understanding is that consultants typically don't make significantly more than there research counterparts (many researchers may be part-time consultants).
Quant work, while somewhat similar, isn't and so I wouldn't necessarily be interested. I would be better suited with an MFE for that type of work.
For IBD, I'd be better suited starting out as an analyst or possibly getting an MBA.
thanks for the support cheers
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