Hi Peter! Yes, having a PhD helps a lot to develop a pure quant's career. Fortunately, an MFE degree (MSCF in particular) opens a door to many other career path (less heavily oriented on research): sell-side sales and trading, buy-side trading, quantitative asset management, structuring and strategy, risk management, modeling etc. These areas require different skills (both quantitative and soft) than pure quantitative positions, and MFE students are taught how to develop these skills. After graduating from an MFE program you will have solid knowledge of several areas of subjects (Programming, Finance, Maths, Statistics) which is necessary to start delivering value to the firm from the very beginning. And firms like that.
Your growth on these positions will depend on how much experience you have, what value you deliver and whether you have the necessary soft skills, and not just whether you have a PhD or not.
So, the answer is: no, PhDs do not "dominate" these areas, and MFE graduates can successfully develop their careers (you can see that if you take a look at our alumni network). Having said that, I have a couple of friends who successfully started their careers in front-desk quantitative research as well, and they feel confident about their future.
The MSCF program indeed lasts for 1.5 years, students graduate in December. Over the last five years, 86 % of MSCF students accepted
full-time positions within three months of graduation. Your full-time offer will indicate your starting date: some firms give you some flexibility (say, at any time within 2 months), others will fix the date themselves (it might be in half a year; although note that international students have special OPT requirements regarding the starting date, and the firms take that into account, so you will probably start by March if you graduate in December). And yes, you are paid as a full-time employee as soon as you start working full-time.=)
Hope that helps. Feel free to reach out with more questions. Also, MSCF webpage has a lot of useful stuff, so you should check it out. Good luck!