I have a Finance PhD with a CFA. Having grown increasingly tired of academia - teaching is intellectually under-stimulating - I have begun plotting a graceful exit from the ivory tower . I am more an empiricist than a modeler; my quantitative skills are decent; my programming skills are rusty. Any suggestions how to move over to the "dark side"? Your input's greatly appreciated ...

Why the dark side - you mean the "Real World"!

psw,I can empathize with your position. I made a similar move two years ago and have not regretted it. I have found that my colleagues in industry have been more appreciative of my work than my students ever were of my efforts to teach them. I was fortunate in that a friend offered me a job. Unfortunately, with a change of CEO, the division was shut down within 9 months. Given my lack of industry experience, it was tough to find the next job (the market was also quite bad a year or so ago). Fortunately, I found the next job with colleagues from the previous firm.I would suggest that you have some C++ or unix under your belt; even though you may not use from 9 to 5 in an industry job it seems to be signal on one's resume, especially if you are trying to enter the more quantitative fields. On the other hand, if you have good SAS skills and are familiar with issues in the credit card world, ABS, etc. you could move to one of the bigger banks or credit card firms. Amex often advertises on Job Openings for Economists.It seems as if one either has to obtain the new skill set, or tailor your job search to your current skill set.Do you have a website with your research papers available for download? (My colleagues googled me when I first interviewed - it helped to have the website)Do you have papers with relevance to industry? If not write something that has relevance and use this to gain exposure.Do you have any friends in industry? When chatting to colleagues who have been in industry for more than 10 years, they have usually moved because of their network, i.e. friends, ex-colleagues, etc. have opened doors for them, and they have reciprocated. Good luck with the change.

psw,I more point: it is definitely NOT the "dark side"!You will be surprised how bright it can be - I have earned more in my first two years of industry than my 5 years of academia! In addition, it is not just about money. I work with some great people - physicists, mathematicians, some incredible individuals in our analyst program (they are sharp, hard working and simply very nice people to work with). THey are good at research, intellectually curious and collegial. Doesn't this sound like a good academic department?So, it may take a bit of time to get your foot in the door, but I don't think that you will regret it.

Thanks for you advice and encouragement obeelde. Lately, I have been brushing up my skill-set (mathematical modeling and programming). It is not the money: it is the rut of teaching the self-evident and running interference with the self-important . And I am not afraid of the "dark side" ...