Has anyone in the community made a similar jump?
Did you find it difficult or realize any considerations in terms of skill set reqiired, lifestyle, and/or compensation ?
Thanks all for the tips or advice!
I will encourage OP to read this Quora thread before considering such a move.
What was Silicon Valley like after the bubble burst in the early 2000s?
Are you unhappy with your job and the domain you work in and want to make a career switch? Do you want to make this move mainly because tech startup is right now hot and you think you can roll the dice and get rich quick? You may want to read up on what happen to people who made such moves during last hype cycles.
Those years left a permanent impression on me."
God, have mercy...
I work at a major hf in C++/R and do a large amount of data analysis and signal generation research. A bit of excel too :)
More generally, I would look in places where your financial services experience will be appreciated. Financial tech, for sure, but really any enterprise SaaS company will appreciate people with programming skills and business sensibilities.
Trading a high probability of a decent bonus for a low probability of a half-decent equity payout (I guess, also no unicorns).