Data Scientists primarily function to tell a story (based upon data) that technicals and non-technicals alike will use in business decisions. It’s critical that a Data Scientist be perceived as trustworthy, since the decision-makers are unlikely to reproduce or even understand the Data Scientist’s full argument.
What signals trustworthiness? A graduate degree from a Harvard Yale Princeton Stanford (HYPS) or similar university definitely speaks well for a candidate. Online degree programs like Coursera / Udacity / etc won’t carry nearly the same weight until their alumnae network grows, and that will require growing into non-technical fields.
What signals untrustworthiness ? Sadly, the “hacker” skills that are so very key in DS (e.g. for data cleaning) are completely at odds with traditional (and especially non-technical) assessments of trustworthiness. Many companies in the Bay Area will look past this issue, but it’s arguably a competitive advantage to simply be able to assess “hacker” skills effectively. That also entails making space for “hackers” at your company. Can’t take hackers? You probably will never hire a good Data Scientist.