I find it funny that a PhD (modern European History) considers a 3 month consulting gig earning 12K "lucrative." That's only ~48K/year ... after taking inflation into account, I was making more without a bachelors.
Oddly, most of my friends pursuing graduate degrees in the hard sciences aren't too worried about job prospects. From what I understand, it's almost impossible for them to get a tenure track position at a decent university. But most do have the option of working in their field in industry or just becoming quants/traders in finance world.
I have a bachelor's degree in finance. I am currently working on a bachelor's degree in mathematics in preparation for a PhD in applied mathematics at, hopefully, either Princeton or MIT. My ultimate goal is to get a quant job. For certain types of PhD's, the job prospects continue to look very lucrative; financial mathematics is one of those areas.
Oddly, most of my friends pursuing graduate degrees in the hard sciences aren't too worried about job prospects. From what I understand, it's almost impossible for them to get a tenure track position at a decent university. But most do have the option of working in their field in industry or just becoming quants/traders in finance world.