title: Frizzled to finance: one PhD's path from a Drosophila lab to Wall Street.
abstract: An equity research analyst's job is to determine whether the price of a stock is likely to go up or down. For science-based businesses, particularly biotechnology companies, a PhD in the life sciences can be very helpful in making this determination. I transitioned from a postdoc position to working in equity research. Here I present information on how I made the transition, an overview of the day-to-day activities of an analyst, and thoughts on how to prepare to look for a job in finance. There are significant positives to working on Wall Street, including exposure to cutting-edge clinical/translational research, access to some of the best scientists in the world, a dynamic work environment, and compensation that generally exceeds academic salaries. This comes at the cost of some independence and the satisfaction of being able to call oneself a scientist.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904 jobtaylor@alumni.virginia.edu.
authors.forename: Job
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology; D002321:Career Choice; D006801:Humans; D007449:Investments; D012108:Research Personnel