QuoteI've spoken to quite a few people about different fields/careers, and I get the impression that the western world is becoming more like some of the asian countries...saturated job markets in everything, and hyper competitive. Competition for jobs has become international.

QuoteOriginally posted by: albertmillsAnd just as I was looking at bioinformatics as a new career...! Do you know if there's any field which combines computer science and biology and has good prospects?Bioinformatics, still. The field is constantly evolving, and there are newer frontiers to conquer, always. You just have to be at the right place at the right time. Within Bioinformatics, personalized medicine and automation of the Bioinformatics pipeline, esp. hypothesis generation, are upcoming areas that are very promising. Several software companies (including Google, Amazon, and IBM) and Valley VCs have entered the field in a big way. You can expect both fields to grow and generate jobs at least in the foreseeable future. By all means, get a PhD, and come and work in this area if it interests you. You will most likely get to work on interesting and important problems. Just be realistic in terms of income, job security etc. - they may not compare favorably with those in the quant space. Case in point - several members of the research group at IBM working on the problems I mentioned above have recently been lured away to work for a CT based billionaire's hedge fund. Most of them are smart, seasoned AI and text analysis researchers who were working on cancer genomics, among other important problems. One can safely assume that money was likely to have been a big factor here.

Quoteseveral members of the research group at IBM working on the problems I mentioned above have recently been lured away to work for a CT based billionaire's hedge fund. Most of them are smart, seasoned AI and text analysis researchers who were working on cancer genomics, among other important problems....that is just quite sad

QuoteCase in point - several members of the research group at IBM working on the problems I mentioned above have recently been lured away to work for a CT based billionaire's hedge fund. Most of them are smart, seasoned AI and text analysis researchers who were working on cancer genomics, among other important problems. One can safely assume that money was likely to have been a big factor here.You have nominally the same special skill set as these former IBM researchers. Why are you not looking at trying to get into the same place? Sounds like you would have greater value there than in a random quant role in a bank or hedge fund.

Sure, these are the kinds of places I would be looking at first. It doesn't hurt to survey the landscape a bit though.