Science career switching to HF help

Hi everyone, need help for a dramatic career change- I’ve obtained a quantitative degree in a target/semi targeted uni(not sure where the boundary lies) from London, jump straight into a PhD of a niche field, where the uni is probably none target but the best in my current expertise. After 1.5 years I realised I made a terrible mistake underestimating the bureaucracy, politics I am and will be dealing, with very little income as a researcher that can’t even afford to feed myself nonetheless start a family etc.. I’ve only had summer scientific research experience during my undergrad and a brief engineering+research job before my PhD to fill the time and have some fun. Which from what I read on WSO doesn’t put me in any advantage applying for a job.

The main motivation for me to switch to a finance career is this is one of the thing I actively followed as a hobby (ie. Read newspapers, books and journals, follow policies updates), and the ignition is when I finished a book about a (failed) HF and realise this is the first time for a long time I’ve finished a book in one sitting. I found the strategies, calculations and human reaction fascinating.

So I’ve been applying to jobs since- for around 3 weeks. Around 10, haven’t applied to half of the big name HF and market makers since I’ve got nothing back from the previous few. I figured there’s something wrong with my CV if I’m getting no replies at all. So here are my questions:

1 What are the chances I get straight into a buy side job? (As a trader or analyst) 2 What are the companies that care less about a background in finance? (Where shall I start) 3 What do they want to see in a CV? What are the candidates they are looking for, for a graduate opening? 4 How much coding skills do I need to have? (I’ve previously done python and C++ projects in uni but a bit rusty now) 5 As in insider, what kind of personality would fit into this specific workspace? 6 What is your biggest dissatisfaction of your current work? Or what’s the main reason you see other people quit? 7 What else shall I do or read to prepare?