Data Scientists: where's the real (easy) money?
You have a quantitative PhD from a top school, made good money selling ads, but now you want more... problem is you got soft working in tech and don't feel up to a Wall Street career anymore. Where to go from here? Should you believe the hedge fund recruiters? Do any startups actually make financial sense? Do you become a software engineer so you can hop jobs more easily? Do you jump on the machine learning train? Is there good money on the ad buying side? Can you sell your soul to Exxon or Monsanto or some foreign government? Don't care about the perks or the prestige, just want solid cash flow and a decent enough work week to enjoy it. Any success or horror stories from friends/acquaintances/enemies who ventured outside of tech data science in pursuit of a fatter paycheck?
Try Renaissance Technologies
We have amazing project for ML on Cybersecurity data. Really cool stuff with direct government/economy implications. Just recently hired some Google deep mind guys.
Google doesn't have easy money?
hedge fund / Wall Street for the big bucks. friend when 24 pulled in 400-500k (200k base, good year with 300k bonus). depending on work/results, bonus can be up to couple million. they're not shy advertising comp to candidates. not easy money though. unless you're writing trading algorithms, long and stressful hours. why IB usually burn out in few years. but you hit the highs on bonuses in 2 years you can retire.
what year was your friend 24? is it before crash or after?
after. year he made that was 2014. so middle of the upswing
what is your goal in term of numbers