[Bahamut]

I have a BS in Mathematical Physics (and a BS & MS in mathematics) - I ended up in web development, primarily because it was all I could get a job in amusingly enough.

I am satisfied with how much mental stimulus I got from my education - I proved to myself that I had the intelligence necessary to get a PhD. After being unemployed for 2 1/2 years, I am happy enough doing web development - it treats me very well as far as pay and quality of life goes, sure beating being homeless. I find enough challenging problems (if not as intense as those I saw in graduate school) to keep me mentally happy, and I have an opportunity to make a difference in my & other people's careers through mentorship and leadership.

For yourself, take a long hard thought at your options - what would you want to do? Becoming an academic is a possibility, but academia is hard to succeed in. You could go the data scientist route, which is a meld of research and coding - there are plenty of unsolved problems there, and uses some of your current skills.

What do you want to do first?