Quote from bidask:
why aren't these traders trading for themselves after they lost their jobs?
I can't say what's happening to actual laid-off traders, but the young woman mentioned by the OP was clearly some kind of analyst or mid-level paper pusher. Not a trader.
When you think of the military, you think of soldiers in direct combat roles. The fact is that most military roles are in logistics and support. Same with Wall Street. They're mostly not traders. Stock brokers aren't traders, for instance.