I am a recent physics PhD (theoretical), in the process of switching to a more applied field. I have some background in machine learning, and while looking for jobs in the field, I happened to find out about DE Shaw (for a quant job, not machine learning per se). I hadn't thought about going into finance at all before that, but having learned that they didn't ask for any background in finance, I made an application. I had a phone interview, then an in-house interview, which I thought had gone reasonably well, but ended up getting rejected.The people I met there had backgrounds similar to mine, and seemed to be the type of guys I would enjoy brainstorming with. In the meantime I found out about Wilmott.com, and I can say a similar thing for some of the people here after reading the forums a bit. So... With the limited amount of exposure I had, it seemed like quantitative finance is a field I can have fun in, but I don't have any background in it. I am guessing things like time series analysis/prediction, statistics/stochastic processes, machine learning, signal processing, etc. could be involved, and I tend to think my background is suited to use these tools (not that I am an expert in all -or any, for that matter-, but I feel I could learn quickly). However, I don't know if I could find other companies that would be willing to interview somebody with no background in finance. I would appeciate any suggestions/advice.Thanks.

Just a quick overview of the situation: some years ago physics PhD could find a job in finance without any knowledge in this field. Now it is much harder and you are expected at least to read Hull book. You should take into account that you will compete with a lot of other PhDs (mostly math and physics), and some of them will have additional degrees such as MS in Fin.Math. or Fin Engeneering, so you should try to find something that will give you an advantage with respect to those people (of course, if you really want to pursue this kind of career).

One thing that is difficult to really get a grip on at first is that companies definitely have unique 'cultures' to them. When I was just out of grad school (in science) I had no idea how competitive this business is.In fact, you may find from time to time that the guy interviewing you feels intimidated by you. I know it sounds weird, but people go through a lot of machinations to insulate their own jobs.The only reason I've done some of the things I've done is through sheer persistance and perseverance. I know for sure (at last) that I'm not the smartest guy in the world. In fact, 99% of the people here are probably smarter than me. However, I press on.P.S. Palet: I interviewed at that company the day they blew up a pile of money formerly belonging to the Bank of America. I didn't get hired either.

Thanks for the comments, everybody. ppauper: I am not sure I was very convincing to some of the interviewers about why I wanted to go into finance, which was only natural. I was honest, I told them I didn't really know what the field was about, but that things like extracting information from very noisy time series by using statistics, analysis, data mining, etc., sounded intriguing to me. When I told one of the interviewers that I was also hoping my visit to give me a better view of what it would be like to work there, he sounded a bit annoyed, saying "so *you* are checking *us* out?". (Well, yes?)I don't want to give a wrong impression though, I think it was just that particular guy. There were also some very nice and helpful people among them.Papercut: I agree that persistance is much more important than many other factors, in almost all fields.