Your opinion on prep services to break into S&T

I've never used one of these services myself, nor do I know anyone first hand who has. I'm kind of in two minds about it...

First off, let's say I'm interviewing someone and I see it on their CV. My reaction would most likely be: "This person is clearly interested in S&T - so much so that they've paid for a course to teach them the basics. That said, I don't think these programmes offer any insight that couldn't be gleaned elsewhere (e.g. personal networks, searching online)". Pros: eager, demonstrable interest, some degree of initiative. Cons: lack of awareness of / value extraction from more readily available resources.

My second take is slightly less forgiving. My gut instinct is that: i) The people that use these services have a lot of money to burn as a student (spending $1,000 for someone to teach you technicals is insane); ii) That these courses are not particularly good value for money; and iii) That the "graduates" of these programmes, for whatever reason, seem more like someone who wants to get into S&T for the idea of S&T (i.e. the supposed prestige, the earning potential) rather than because of a genuine interest in markets, their structure, and the different approached to trading / investing (as demonstrated by the often overweighted albeit superficial focus of these programmes on "technical" trading).

Now, you say there's also CV preparation services and interview training... Frankly, if I were interviewing two candidates, and one had done a spring week at a bank and another had paid for one of these courses, I'd grill the person who'd paid for the course far more than the former bank intern. Why? Because I know exactly how much a spring week intern is expected to learn over their week with a bank, whereas I'd assume the person who'd paid for a course: i) Should have absorbed far more information (after all, their money was hopefully hard at work); and ii) Has taken the "easier route" - there's no eligibility criteria to these programmes (as far as I'm aware), so it seems like the easier albeit more expensive avenue to add "experience" to your CV. I can only hope that the interview prep is extremely thorough.

Overall, then, I'd probably advise against paying for these courses: you're better off doing the traditional spring week >> summer internship >> FT offer route and filling in any gaps with informal experience than you are paying for a programme to teach you material of, I'd say, questionable value. I would, however, say that if you're struggling to muster this "regular" experience, Morgan Stanley in London does seem to have some partnership with Amplify Trading - if you're in a tight spot and are set on applying to one of these programmes, it goes without saying that it's better to apply to one with some sort of relationship to a bank than one without.