> What is hilarious about these articles is none of them ever say "Math as a SENIOR data scientist", because we all acknowledge that senior scientists know the math. Almost every job listing for senior data scientist will prefer a Ph.D. On larger teams, the Ph.D (advanced math) crowd will come up with the general approach that junior data scientists will work on. So yes, getting in the door as a data scientist requires having enough math/programming so you can at least understand what a senior scientist wants you to do. But if you want to lead a team in a technical capacity, you can't possibly imagine doing that without really knowing the math or having a brilliant track record.

In other words, being a Data Scientist requires performing "scientific" activities. Most of these articles focuses on the "Data" part and very rarely about "science". Science requires excellent scholarship - synthesis of current situation and putting future proposals in context of the current "jigsaw puzzle". Now, that is a skill that you can not learn by reading - you need to practice it for someone period of time. No wonder, Ph.D is a requirement for such positions.