I've talked to finance shops (I live in London, so there are plenty about), but they worry about my lack of formal mathematical training and of course they don't want to hire "gamblers". I've got some calls with a few people lined up that might mean I get to make the jump at some point in the next few months.

I am enjoying it being a hobby right now, and I seem to be more comfortable calculating and assessing risk and pay-off than others which can be useful in an engineering team with an operations component.

So it's helped, but it's not my job, no.