As a data scientist with a BS and MBA, I can attest to having experienced disqualification for jobs specifically because of my lack of a PhD. What's troubling is employers think they need PhDs. It often doesn't matter if I have 10 years experience applying data science in industry, without that PhD companies think I'm unqualified.

From my perspective, the best data scientists strike a balance between technical and business knowledge. And it's the business knowledge that PhDs coming straight from academia often lack.