> What worked for me personally was finding a very small company with a tiny data science department, that was headed by an ML PhD who was ready to mentor me
IMO this is excellent advice for anyone who wants to move into a new field, and I've personally learned many of my skills through this kind of situation. Get yourself a job somewhere small but ambitious, and you'll end up wearing a lot of hats and doing new things simply because you put your hand up for them. Then when it's time to move on, voila! You have X years commercial experience in a whole bunch of things and you put the one that you want to focus on next onto your resume.
The bigger the company, the smaller the pidgeonhole you'll live in and the less likely you are to ever end up doing anything outside your original job description.
IMO this is excellent advice for anyone who wants to move into a new field, and I've personally learned many of my skills through this kind of situation. Get yourself a job somewhere small but ambitious, and you'll end up wearing a lot of hats and doing new things simply because you put your hand up for them. Then when it's time to move on, voila! You have X years commercial experience in a whole bunch of things and you put the one that you want to focus on next onto your resume.
The bigger the company, the smaller the pidgeonhole you'll live in and the less likely you are to ever end up doing anything outside your original job description.