Are liberal arts degrees worthless? ‘Employers don't care what you major in,' says career expert

I'm living proof you don't need a certain college major to do alright in life. 

At Sarah Lawrence College, I didn't have a major. Nobody did — the school's undergraduate program doesn't have them. I have the oft-mocked and statistically underpaid bachelor's degree in liberal studies.

And while luck has probably contributed a fair amount to my success — I've remained gainfully employed the entire time I've been out of school — it's kind of funny now to think there was a time I was so anxious that my degree wouldn't get me anywhere. 

The question of whether your college major matters (if you even have one) is similar to the question of whether having a degree at all matters in that the answer is yes and no. 

There's plenty of data to support the idea that more education will help you earn more money. But there is also not quite a shortage of success stories of people who didn't get a degree. Billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey are among many who famously dropped out of college.

The same goes for majors. Plenty of statistics can show you which degrees tend to correlate with higher earnings. Meanwhile, some hugely successful names in various industries studied something completely different than what would define their careers.

Multi-hyphen artist John Legend studied English and African-American literature at the University of Pennsylvania. And Mayim Bialik earned her PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles after she'd begun her career as an actress. 

What you major in is a personal decision, but it's a good idea to seek counsel from your advisors, peers and industry professionals to help make the best decision for yourself. 

Here are a few things to consider.

When your major really matters

There are certainly jobs that require specific degrees. 

"If I'm a patient, I don't want an engineer operating [on me]. I really want somebody who went to medical school who got a medical degree to be able to be doing that," Kafui Kouakou, assistant vice president of career development and experiential learning at Quinnipiac University, tells CNBC Make It.

But there are also plenty of jobs that don't require specific degrees. College is about more than just getting a job, and administrators like Kouakou want students to be able to pursue their interests without fear of unemployment after they graduate. 

"In some areas, it's clear cut why that degree is linked to the career outcome, but in some other areas it's not clear cut," he says. "We want students to be able to explore with the understanding that no matter what degree they get, there is a career that's gonna connect to it at some point."

If you're like I was and wondering if your major is going to pay off in the long run, fear not. 

"For the vast majority of jobs, employers don't care what you major in," Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake, a job platform for early talent and Gen Z, tells CNBC Make It. "[Employers] care about your skills, your ability to communicate, your ability to critically think and problem solve, and they're usually willing to train you on a lot of the specifics."

Why your interests are more important than your major

When you're choosing a major, it may be tempting to go after one of the statistically top-paying degrees, regardless of whether it actually interests you much. But doing so may not be the best move.

First, because while a job that aligns with your studies may not pay well at first, it could grow over time.

"Your interests may match with a job that can ultimately pay you a really good salary right out of the gate," Kouakou says. "Some others you may have to start a little bit slow, start to make some money and then over time, it continues to increase and grow from there."

Additionally, you'll want to consider your own performance in a certain major before you commit to it. People with computer science degrees might generally make a lot of money, for example, but if coding puts you to sleep, you may find it hard to stay motivated to do well in school and therefore be able to secure one of those high-paying jobs.

Ask yourself: "If you change majors, are you actually interested enough in the [major] that you might change into that you're going to excel in the classes, be interested in reading all the stuff that you have to, and do all the assignments? Do you have the motivation to actually do that?" Cruzvergara says. 

When it comes to job success, often you get what you give

You have more control than you might think when it comes to your future earnings. The job market and broader economy may make it difficult for you to find a job at any given time, but if you're looking to make a lot of money, the jobs you choose to pursue will matter more than what you studied.

"The reality is, it's not actually your major that dictates how much you are going to make," Cruzvergara says. "It is the industry that you choose to pursue and what the market will bear for that industry or for those roles that determine what you will make."

She gives the hypothetical of two students who graduate with English degrees. One decides to become an elementary school teacher while the other pursues a career in finance at Goldman Sachs. 

"They will have two fundamentally different salaries," she says. "And it wasn't because they chose English. It was because they chose to go into two different industries and the market bears different value for those two industries."

There may be extra legwork involved, like taking additional classes or doing more networking, but it is both possible and reasonable for students to study what they want and still find their way into a high-paying job.

"You have to learn the jargon in the way they talk about it," Cruzvergara says. "You might not be getting a lot of that business jargon in your English classes, but you're gonna have to be able to talk like that in your interviews."

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