There are a lot of terrible companies that won't look at you for an ML/data science role without a PhD. I'm arguing that it's more serious than this: there are

There are a lot of terrible companies that won't look at you for an ML/data science role without a PhD. I'm arguing that it's more serious than this: there are so many PhDs out there right now, companies will have no lack of skilled, well-credentialed candidates to choose from. Going down the "do it yourself" DS route is thus (a) very difficult, and (b) not very likely to pay off.