Have friends in S&T asking me is it worth to get a masters... idk??

I have a few friends who are currently wrapping up their first year in S&T, and they're asking me if it makes sense to get a masters if they want to get into prop trading. TBH, I am at one of the T2 shops or whatever: Akuna, Maven, Flow, CTC, etc. and I don't really know what to say to them. I know a few friends who went from Quantitatively heavy desks (Was on the electronic trading team at GS and now at CitSec) and now at CitSec, and I know tbh like if they're at a pretty solid S&T desk product wise and have Python/Technical skills we're happy to interview them for a graduate level role which they'd be happy with because most of the times the comp is a jump anyways.

This leads me to the conclusion.. what's the point of the M.S. Quant Finance/STEM programs if you want to get into trading and you're already in the industry? If you're in consulting at McKinsey and want to go into Quant Trading, the M.S. programs make sense to give you a new shot at re-recruiting for a graduate role. If you're at a bank on a decent S&T desk that's pretty quantitative, we'd be happy to give you an interview as well.

The only time I think a masters makes sense is for those who were unable to break in to any sort of trading related role out of undergrad, and don't want to go be a consultant or engineer or something and are all in for trading. The masters gives them a small leg up and opportunity to re-recruit for graduate programs. This is my takeaway, but want to know if I'm missing any obvious advantages to a masters.

Especially for those derivative traders out there, the practical experience on a desk in my eyes and I believe senior members of my team as well, is that the options theory and the market stuff is difficult to learn in an environment where you're not actively trading and seeing how your positions change or how your risk needs to be manage.

Maybe the other reason to get a masters is you're in S&T but not on a quantitatively heavy enough desk (sounds like most all desks love Python guys now and its a MASSIVE leg up) to really have the technical chops keep up. Then again, at my shop we also split the desks into those who enjoy the trading and those who enjoy supporting the desk with strategy research, tools, etc. so even then if you're great at options theory and understand the product there's still a possible seat here as well.