Complexity + Tight Coupling = Catastrophe; Academic Job
A good overview about the current mess in the financial markets.
On Wednesday, August 8 (2007), not long after the markets closed, 200 of the smartest people on Wall Street gathered in a conference room at Four World Financial Center, the 34-story headquarters of Merrill Lynch. August is usually a slow month, but the rows of chairs were full, and highly paid financial engineers were standing by the windows at the back, which looked out over black Town Cars below and the Hudson River beyond. They didn't look like Masters of the Universe; they looked like members of a chess club. They were "quants," and they had a lot to talk about, for their work was at the heart of one of the most worrisome summer markets in decades.
...When the quants gathered in August, the most pessimistic among them imagined that the collapse of the subprime market could lead to a shortage of credit as banks dealt with defaults. That would chill the economy, causing worldwide job losses, still more defaults, decreased spending, and withdrawals from the stock market, culminating in a global recession, or worse.
Rumors now abound that the US government will cut the number of H-1Bs available starting this year, or next. Job openings for non-US citizens and PRs are being slashed as it is now. One is considered lucky to be able to get a job offer in industry this year.
A friend is suggesting that I apply to my undergraduate alma mater for a post doc position, in my former advisor's lab. After all, he is working on something similar to what I am doing now, plus I have prior experience with that lab.
Maybe I should just stay put in academia.
If you are considering an academic research faculty position, this will be useful.
3 comments:
Rumors now abound that the US government will cut the number of H-1Bs available starting this year, or next. Job openings for non-US citizens and PRs are being slashed as it is now. One is considered lucky to be able to get a job offer in industry this year.
is that because we'll see high unemployment? doesn't seem like that's on the cards yet. and even then that would be a strange move because bill gate et al keep saying that the hi-tech industry lacks qualified people.
It's election year. Now I think most companies are adopting a wait-and-see approach, by holding off hiring and seeing how the economy performs over the next few quarters.
At least based on what recruiters are saying - those coming over for career fairs.
i wonder if that's the same across all industries. my very limited exposure shows me that hi-tech companies are still hiring aggressively, especially startups, at least, given the number of messages i get on linked-in. maybe the other shoe hasn't dropped yet in this part of the economy :)
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