[MojoJolo]

In my case, I was a software engineer for more than a year. I made an algorithm that works well during my MS degree. A company took notice of it. They hired me.

I don't have much data science background. I don't have any formal introduction in it. But when I started, I realized that my experience in building the algorithm is a good enough starting point. My point is, don't just take online courses, try to apply what you learn. Try Kaggle, can't vouch for it though, I still don't have a chance to try it. You can also gather data, do some data science out of it, post your findings as an article in your blog, and share it in social media. Not a sure fire, but can give you credibility and people will know that you knew something about data science.