toughm but worth to try if two conditons meet

1. if He LOVES financial career, dedicated, and willing to suffer initial painful transition.
2. Financially dependable till he finally nake the transition. I see people take 1-10 years to eventually move into financial industry.
With today's market, it will be long. many laid off workers in the financial industry are trying to land a job but can not. My friends are out of job for 6 months. Some have to move back to China.
The industry has some bubble to burst, there goes the excess of employee. It will recover, but to what extent? It may never reach the level in past 10 years for a long time.

If programming and math is good, he can try financial engineer or quant program. It's also getting harder now. Don't think you need degree but it definitely help to have one in FE.

With these in mind, are you still interested? If so, go forward!

hope this helps!