Dip into finance

Today I attended a lecture by a relatively well-known academic within computational finance (the reason for this is to try to figure out what to do after what I'm currently doing).

I wasn't too familiar with the terms used within finance, so I didn't follow the discussion. In this particular course (where the speaker was a guest lecturer) they seem to use Excel a lot. Probably this is just a particularity of the course level.

One thing that really stood out was that they talked a lot about master theses. Every half hour or so, the lecturer or someone else would say something like "This is probably something that a master student could have as their project." In my field, this very rarely comes up. It made me wonder how it is in other fields. Is it a sign of underabundance of researchers within finance?

After this lecture, I am less opposed to working in finance than I previously was. I asked the lecturer about future prospects based on my own history, and she said I would have very few problems entering quantitative finance in some way - I could perhaps take a couple of courses in finance first. Also, she said that she didn't find working with finance less intellectually stimulating than what she did before (she switched to finance after her Ph.D.).

I suppose what's standing in the way of a career in finance for me is the thought that it is less 'pure' or 'ideal' than what I am currently doing. After all, working with finance is not trying to figure out how the world works. But then again - working in the academic world has made me rethink the validity of stating that I am trying to figure out how the world works. At my institute, at least, it seems to be less and less true the older you get, as grant applications, teaching etc. takes over.

I am still undecided about this. I have to try to gather as much information as possible about the experience of working with something else than what I am currently doing before I make a choice.