[achompas]

Thanks for the excellent summary. This line:

I am good with mathematics but not the mathematics usually needed as a data scientist

resonates with me. If you're thinking of data science, you're facing a loooooong road of coursework (scientific computing or numerical methods, linear algebra, PGMs, machine learning, AI, possibly some optimization too) to get your foot in the door. I'm going to try, but one could spend years finishing that work.

In some ways, getting a data science gig is the opposite of getting a web developer gig. In DS you're competing with a large supply of intelligent PhDs, so credentials are very important; for web dev, your portfolio goes much further than any credentials.