If a degree were what it was 60 years ago this would be a big deal. I mostly recruit salespeople. Do you think a degree is the first thing I look at?
No, but a lot depends on the circumstances.
I have to make one point: we should be careful not to judge young people based on their degrees. There are a lot of kids who started college in 2006, 2007, 2008. They studied the fields that had resulted in a job before the great crash of 2008-9. No one knew back then that a business degree would be next to worthless. The question is, what did they do with their lives after they found that the degree was worthless?
I know a young man who sacrificed and struggled and labored to get a degree in history which is the field he loves dearly. Before 2008 he had some job prospects; afterward, nothing. But he did not sit around in his mother's basement feeling sorry for himself. He got a different job and has actually a better opportunity now to teach people about our national heritage. He's the child of a poor single mother with no education and has been educating himself since he was 12, and I know he's going to be a big success because of his attitude despite his degree area. Still, college did him a world of good--I can't emphasize that enough.