People act like finance is some secret inner sanctum, but it isn't. Finance companies/hedge funds advertise on job boards like any other company. They also often use very aggressive recruiters so finding the recruiting company du jour in your area and talking to them can help.
I've worked (well over) a decade programming in the financial sector, and I got my first job in the industry based on a headhunter and 20 minute interview phone call. It just turned out that I was damned good at it.
I've worked with some brilliant mathematical people, and I've worked with many who were not so brilliant. There are a ton of people who do the 'math' and 'stat' work at major financial institutions who are nowhere near as good at math as they should be. I haven't found it to be much different that any other industry from a programmatic perspective.
