Transition from Game Dev programmer to Finance

Hi,
I am new to the forum and in general new to the finance world. And not exactly sure how to form my question. Sorry if it sounds a bit random. I am a bit disappointed by my game dev programming carrier, as it wasn't what I expected. I graduated Computer Science/Software Engineering 4 years ago and since then I've been in game dev. Most companies are very afraid to take risks, use old tech, try to copy already existing games/tech. And because of this I ended up working long hours without a challange for myself. I am not improving on personal level, my skills are deteriorationg. I used to be good at maths, no more. I used to be good at programming, I haven't improved much, while the world has moved a lot. And salaries do not raise much in game dev. I am most likely already earning more than seniors in other companies.

I looked at some finance job offers and they ranged anywhere from £80k to £300k in London. And some of the more interesting seemed to be in 'quant' jobs. I am really interested in trading, maths and machine learning. Not sure what all the different available job paths are. In general, I am interested because of the high pay, high pressure work (this might also be a negative thing, but I enjoy a challenging job and not one that I would need 5 cups of coffee just to get me through the day without falling asleep on my desk), working with state of the art tech, always trying to be better than the competition (and not just copy what they've done).

So I would like to ask. Do you think someone with a similar experience can make the switch to finance?
Where can I see available job paths?
If you were in my situation, what would you choose to do?
Is Quant/HFT dev jobs a good goal? Or should I aim for trading platform developer somewhere? Or what else is there?

In general I am a bit lost and currently reading through the forums. So any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

 
 

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