[kupaka]

It seems like what op is trying to say is that being a data scientist is a cross disciplinary position, so you can't really start off as a data scientist, rather you become one through other positions. However, their complaints feel more like either an inability or unwillingness to make the team a place for its members to grow. Ideally, members would be doing code review, so issues with ugly/inefficient code can be addressed and learned from. Getting up to speed on the organization's systems, which system to use situationally, general philosophical thinking behind what the data is, which problems to solve and how to solve them are definitely things that come out when a mid-level mentors a junior, which should be a thing that happens on the team, because it not only helps the juniors get up to speed, but it reinforces the mid-level member's knowledge. I think that speaks to real structural issues in how the team is set up, and if op's the head of a data team, I wouldn't want to work for him or for a company he works at in that capacity.

[linkerzx]

There is no issue hiring juniors, they have a lot to learn and they should be coached through it for sure. That mid level, help coach juniors, is also not an issue. But I would rather hire a junior analyst or a junior engineer than a junior data-scientist. The breadth of what they need to learn before actually delivering value is quite vast.

I can hire an analyst or engineer and quickly they will be able to learn, get good at something and deliver value. After 2 years they can easily grow into a data-scientist with the good base they have had from their previous positions.

Some organization essentially rebrand analysts positions to "junior datascientist", but I believe this make it a mismatch of expectation for graduates getting out of school.