Equity derivatives

i know its been quite a while since the question was asked but thought i could add my 2 cents after having spent this summer mostly on different equity derives desks. There are certainly some things that are becoming more automated like index futures, exchanges like Eurex are adding more and more products to their listed markets.  Now because these are super liquid markets they trade 'on the screen' ie through an exchange, but there are still many products that dont. Total return futures are super illiquid on the screen, and traders who want to buy or sell these still must go through brokers. Algos are super present on many of these markets but there are some markets where algos just dont have that much success or are not trusted, like volatility products. Products like options on VIX or VSTOXX or the 5E are still dominated by the high touch approach, this is mostly because these algos cant trade without moving the market with these listed products. Unlike cash equities which algos dominate because of the dark pools to mask. 

on the point about career progression, i cant speak to much as im only an intern but from what i saw most of the people in the space where pretty young, eg my desk head was 33. A bunch of the guys at my shop were all ex-BB or ex-other buy side, and a couple people left to go AMs but most stay between BB and HFs.