Andy,
these are valid questions and perhaps we can start a new post on this, cause i'm sure many people are considering such programs, but the forum is currently focused more on quant stuff, such as FE!
i will only speak about stanford ms&e, because I've done my research on this:
basically, what could be an IEOR department at Stanford Engineering School is actually called "MS&E" department and offers one single master with tracks (finance&econ, strategy, OR, entrepreneurship, energy and decision-making systems etc). this is in contrast to what happens, for example, at Columbia Fu Engineering School, cause the Department is named "IEOR" and offers 4 distinct masters in IE, OR, FE, MS&E. essentially, though, both departments at the different universities are the same (professors do similar research, many classes are the same etc)
when it comes to the finance&econ track of the Stanford's program, things are less quant than a typical MSFE program. you still do hedging, derivatives, stochastic processes, black-scholes etc, but it seems that you focus more on the implementation rather than all the hard math! also, you take econ classes in order to be able to evaluate macro stuff!
overall, career paths for MS&E graduates can be many, including: consulting, financial consulting, technology-based stuff, OR jobs, IB & finance etc. it depends on what coursework you choose, your interests, your experience etc.
another great thing about Stanford MS&E (and this is also the case with other MS&E programs, Columbia's for example) is that you can actually take several classes at the Business School; and they actually encourage or require you to take them! so, you see a more practical/business approach of certain concepts through case studies, projects etc
Stanford's MS&E does not have a separate career services office! Columbia's MS&E has a dedicated career officer at the IEOR department who communicates with career stuff at the Business School and helps MS&E students with placement.
Generally speaking, I could say (this is a personal opinion) that an MS&E degree is close to a mini-MBA for people with less work experience. This is obviously a great thing about MS&E degrees! By mini-MBA, I mean that you don't have access to all the curriculum options you'd find in a traditional MBA (for example, family business, leadership classes, perhaps entrepreneurship etc), but you do see things, such as strategy, finance, perhaps technology-based or health care stuff etc (it really depends on the program and your curriculum choices) from a more practical/less theoretical perspective. The main disadvantage I see is that MS&E graduates are definitely not MBA-graduates both in terms of brand and in terms of skills; and also in terms of alumni network and career resources!! but yeah, MS&E is an 1-year cheaper program!! :-p
as for your last question about internationals choosing MS&E even if placement seem vague, I can only speak about Stanford's MS&E program: because it's Stanford, many MS&E graduates get jobs through the great central career services. because of the university's general entrepreneurial orientation and the location, many of those go into small or big consulting firms, technology-based start-ups or VCs. Of course, a bunch go to IB and finance jobs (these are universal!), but probably in less quant and more "critical thinking/ analyzing" positions, and then many become project managers in tech companies. so, why not choose such a program???
overall, i would say that an MS&E degree does open doors because of the different career options you choose without excluding anything (like a highly-specialized MSFE degree would do). yeah, perhaps you can't get a very quant finance position or any other specialized job, but this depends on what you want! it's more of a "generalist" degree, close enough to an MBA, with the disadvantage of not getting you to the Associate level that MBAs generally do
