PhD student here. I’m 100% in on it being worth it because of what I want to do in my career: research. Working at the cutting edge on mentally challenging problems is fun to me. I think this is more necessary for machine learning than data science, though I would suggest at least a master’s for data science. It also really depends on the specifics of the positions you want to be in. The best thing to do is to start looking at jobs and thinking about career paths. Then, think about what you need to get there. Of course, things change quickly, so you might want to think about what jobs will be in demand in 5 years.
PhD student here. I’m 100% in on it being worth it because of what I want to do in my career: research. Working at the cutting edge on mentally challenging problems is fun to me. I think this is more necessary for machine learning than data science, though I would suggest at least a master’s for data science. It also really depends on the specifics of the positions you want to be in. The best thing to do is to start looking at jobs and thinking about career paths. Then, think about what you need to get there. Of course, things change quickly, so you might want to think about what jobs will be in demand in 5 years.