It depends on what else you're doing. If you're a Scala dev and regularly work with something like Spark and Hadoop you could probably find an entry level data

It depends on what else you're doing. If you're a Scala dev and regularly work with something like Spark and Hadoop you could probably find an entry level data science job at a non-FB/Google company because your programming and framework experience are much needed. But if you're just a Java dev and you're taking an Udemy nanodegree or something you would have to know somebody or get very lucky. It's possible to maybe help another team and sequel that into a data science job internally, but outside, forget it.