Data Scientist is the new hot job

"Data Scientist" will soon be the most over-hyped job title in our industry. Lots of people will attach it to their resumé in the hopes of better positions

but despite the hype, there is a genuine skill set

The ability to explore questions and formulate them as hypotheses that can be tested with statistics.
Business knowledge, consulting, and collaboration skills.

Understanding machine-learning techniques.
Programming ability enough to implement the various models they are working with.

Although most data scientists will be comfortable using specialized tools, all this is much more than knowing how to use R. The understanding of when to use models is usually more important than being able to use them, as is how to avoid probabilistic illusions and overfitting.