How do y'all feel about the STEM Masters Degree career pivot into HF

I'm seeing a handful of folks I know in various finance (or finance-adjacent) fields (banking, consulting, research, sometimes even tech companies) enroll in masters degree programs like Computational Mathematics, Financial Engineering, Financial Mathematics, Data Science, Computer Science, etc with the intent of opening up more career doors. 

Can a move like this unlock hedge fund jobs (quantitative researcher, research analyst/associate, etc) that may not have been previously feasible? I'm sure there is a spectrum (with Citadel/Two Ligma/DE Shaw on one end and smaller specialist shops, crypto funds, brand new funds, etc on the other) but curious what the general sentiment is. Thanks

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