I have never seen someone with “a 3 week mooc” getting a data science job. In fact, those jobs are being gatekeeped to a ridiculous degree, suddenly asking for PhDs for jobs that are barely more than a regular BI job.
A skilled software engineer who is good at math could probably take some MOOCs, build a portfolio, and do well at data science interviews that emphasize coding. Many interviews often just ask ISL-level questions (Introduction to Statistical Learning), which is studyable over a few months. On the other hand, it would be significantly more difficult for a new-to-coding statistician to become an excellent coder in a short time ... although I've seen some people do it.
