Perhaps the real measure of a degree’s worth lies not just in the job it leads to but in the broader perspective it cultivates—the ability to question, to think critically, and to contribute meaningfully, regardless of whether that contribution fits neatly into traditional hierarchies of labor.

In 2024, a video made its rounds on TikTok and other social media of students dressed in graduation regalia reciting their majors to the camera. The students were a graduating class from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, a program encouraging students to develop a specific focus for their degree. Instead of “engineering” or” history,” students in the video named majors that sounded more like titles of a thesis: exploring colonialism and sustainable economic development, creativity as communication, and spiritual healing were some examples. 

Content creators took up the video, which frequently appeared interspersed with incredulous or mocking commentary between student recitations. One such video featured the creator attempting to order a drink from a cafe; the skit implied that the recent graduate’s degree had only served to get them a job at a coffee shop.

Putting aside the implicit critique of a service sector job (for now), videos like these attempt to create humor by drawing a connection between a grandiose-sounding college major and a lack of comparable achievement, e.g., being employed as a barista.

But there are implications worth noting.

1. The students have wasted their college education. These degrees, which sound so important, will not help them achieve what the public would consider a “good job.” Instead of focusing their time and effort on a specialization popularly thought to be valid, such as engineering, pre-med, accounting, etc. (pick a STEM field), they majored in something frivolous. Likely, they are a casualty of “woke” education and out-of-touch ivory tower liberalism. Whatever the case, the pride of these students reciting their majors to the camera serves as a counterpoint to how little their degrees will mean outside of this institution and at this moment. 
2. There is something fundamentally wrong with an education that doesn’t create a direct path to a worthy career. The point of a college education is to prepare one to achieve a “worthy” career. These students are foolish because they chose a major – worse, they designed it themselves – that will not lead to an appropriate job. In this context, “a proper job” is one that the student otherwise couldn’t get without a college degree. The fact that the student is implied to be working in the service industry – an “unskilled” job by popular definition – is a direct critique of the uselessness of their degree and their last four years of education. The creator’s belief, and one they assume their audience shares, is that a college degree ought to be a vehicle for better employment; in other words, if you go to college and do not come out the other side with better employment prospects than which you came in, you have wasted your time. What other reason would one go to college? 
3. Working at a coffee shop is not a worthy career. (I told you we’d get to it.) The joke/critique of the video only works if you believe that the college graduate’s implied profession – a barista – is not a worthwhile job. At least the job is beneath someone who has a college education. To relate to the concept of a worthy job (the job the now-barista ought to have secured if they hadn’t screwed up their education), we must also have an idea of an unworthy job. This job is, for whatever reason, not valued as much by society as other occupations. 

This latter begs the question: What is a worthy career? It’s interesting to consider the social commentary on employment that runs through our everyday lives and colors how we perceive, talk about, and ultimately value certain professions. The fact is that jobs come in all shapes, sizes, and shades of social commentary.

Becoming a doctor from “HowStuffWorks’

We have elite professions: these rarer professions are generally seen as marks of accomplishment in their own right. Elite jobs are difficult to get: candidates must accumulate rare knowledge and certifications to qualify, jump through all sorts of hoops to arrive at the interview, and enter into a ferocious competition to ultimately be worthy of the job. Not everyone can get these jobs. Not everyone can be qualified for these jobs. Lots of people try to get these jobs but fail. These high bars and failure rates contribute to the gilding of these jobs. Doctors are the prime example. Lawyers and politicians to a lesser degree. Elite military operators (e.g., Navy Seals) are another. 

Trade! (photo courtesy SmartAsset)

We have high-paying professions. Elite professions are often high-paying, but we also have a set of occupations that are not as difficult to get as elite jobs but pay exceedingly well. You will recognize these jobs because the salary is often the first thing people note, rather than what you do or where you do it. “You know, X makes a lot of money.” Tech sector careers and coding jobs are a recent example, with online certificate programs making big earning promises for relatively little investment. 

Nursing (photo courtesy CareRev)

We have noble professions, i.e., professions that don’t typically earn a lot of money but are nevertheless well-regarded by society. Future teachers, nurses, and farmers choose their careers because of integrity and compassion. Despite having other prospects, they selflessly prioritize the collective good over their paycheck. George Bailey, the protagonist of It’s a Wonderful Life, forgoes traveling the world and joining a lucrative start-up in order to sustain his family’s struggling Savings and Loan, a vital financial resource to his working-class community.    

Bus driver (photo courtesy Santa Anna College)

We have ambiguous jobs for which there isn’t a strong social commentary. Driving a bus, for example, doesn’t pay very much. It wouldn’t be at the top of people’s list for a noble profession (although it does serve the school). But it also wouldn’t be at the top of someone’s list for a bad job. Children are not usually warned that they will grow up to be bus drivers if they don’t do well in school. An anthropologist is another ambiguous job, primarily because, given that nobody really knows what an anthropologist is or what one does, the job doesn’t register in the public consciousness. Most jobs fall into this category – these are those nobody cares about enough to have an opinion.

Ditch digging (photo courtesy TikTok)

Then we have the terrible jobs. These are the jobs that, at least as far as popular opinion is concerned, nobody wants to do. Sometimes, these jobs serve as warnings: nobody wants to grow up to be a ditch digger or flip hamburgers. In others, bad jobs are jobs that few, if any, aspire to get. Food service jobs, customer service jobs, sanitation jobs, and telemarketing are all generally undesirable categories of employment. These are not jobs that one is seen to earn as much as they are seen to fall into the role. How does someone wind up in a lousy job? Maybe it’s because they messed up their education. 

It is also interesting to consider how this social commentary shapes perceptions of the training leading to that profession. Curriculum, educators, and institutions all play a role in either preparing someone for a (worthy) career or railroading them into an (unworthy) job due to a lack of credentials or valuable skills. 

But is that true? It may be a common understanding, but is it a fair and accurate understanding of the social, personal, and economic conditions that lead someone to follow a particular career path and of the role of education in defining and propelling someone down that path? To suss this out, we need to ask some more questions. 

First, is being a barista a ‘bad’ job? It is fascinating and tragic that jobs commonly thought of as “bad,” despite the social stigma they carry, are often some of the most obviously necessary and valuable jobs on the market. During COVID, the quarantined classes celebrated rightly-called “essential workers” for putting themselves at risk to keep required services and businesses running. This celebration and whatever respect it generated did not survive the first wave of vaccines. 

Coffee Ph.D.

Even so, the celebratory appellation was well-struck: It is safe to say that, despite being often maligned as cautionary tales, the world needs what these jobs produce at a fundamental level. We need ditches and hamburgers. And far more of us need ditches and hamburgers than we need hedge fund managers. 

Despite this utility, the average hedgefund manager commands significantly more pay and social clout than a ditch digger. Why is this? I don’t know. What I do know, and what this example highlights, is that empirically useful or “essential” jobs do not always have a social value commiserate with their real-world impact.  

Is being a barista a bad job? That ultimately depends on how you define “bad.” I don’t think it is a bad job; it is useful. It doesn’t hurt anyone. It is honest. It allows for creativity. It brings people joy.

Second, should people with college degrees be baristas? The humor of the TikTok video frames the convoluted degree as leading to the barista’s position and positions that as a negative outcome. As we’ve stated, the implication is that if the college degree had been more sensible, it would have led to a better career. This implies that someone with a college degree should not become a barista. Instead, they should be something better. The video does not elaborate on what precisely that better profession is. It is only clear that “it” is not a barista.  Why not? Why can’t someone with a college degree be a barista? If they are qualified for the position, it shouldn’t be a problem. 

Photo courtesy Coffee Hero

It almost seems like there is an implication that someone with a college degree should not be a barista insofar as their degree obligates them to do something more than make people coffee (itself implying that making coffee is somehow not enough of a career). 

So, should people with a college degree be obligated to do specific jobs, e.g., jobs deemed commiserate with the degree? If a degree can qualify you for a job, should it also disqualify you from others? Do college graduates owe it to society or themselves to, in some sense, continue to earn their degree after they’ve earned it by working in a field that justifies that degree? 

I would say no – you do you – but the video seems to imply “yes”…

Third, is a college education not directly leading to a specific job a failure? If I go to school to become an anthropologist, graduate, and then start working as not-as-an anthropologist, has my education failed? Was the whole endeavor a waste of time? 

Medical anthropologist (photo courtesy SUNY Cortland)

We tend to value experiences retrospectively based on the outcomes we can connect to them. A course was valuable because you’ve been able to apply a skill you learned in it (never mind if that wasn’t your original intention in taking the class). Being laid off was a valuable experience because it led to the next job (never mind how painful the experience was in the moment). And so on. Going to a party was valuable because you met the love of your life (never mind that your friends had to drag you there). 

This makes sense. It’s impossible to know the true value of an experience until after the fact. Had Charles Darwin not written up his findings, and had that work not gone on to reshape our understanding of natural science radically, then Darwin’s experience would have just been a guy screwing around on a boat and looking at birds. 

But the reality of retrospective valuation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if we don’t consider the potential value of the experiences we pursue – e.g., a college education – we would struggle to navigate our lives, leaving everything up to chance strategically. On the other hand, if we focus too much on the perceived usefulness of an experience, we might miss out on a truly defining moment. 

Looking at a degree in spiritual healing, you might feel you can accurately predict its ultimate value. But you really can’t. And if you look around you, you’ll see that most people – including yourself – got to where they are personally and professionally through a long and winding road that only became a path in retrospect. Maybe you are currently doing exactly what it says on your degree. More likely, you are earning a living by doing something utterly unanticipated during your education.

If you are in that latter camp, was your education a failure? 

Ultimately, the video of NYU Gallatin graduates and the reactions it provoked reveal more about our collective anxieties than the students themselves. The assumptions underpinning the mockery—the belief that a degree must translate directly into financial success, and that certain jobs are inherently more valuable than others. Personal fulfillment is then secondary to marketability, which (when internalized) reflects a deeply ingrained social beliefs about education and work.

Perhaps the real measure of a degree’s worth lies not just in the job it leads to but in the broader perspective it cultivates—the ability to question, to think critically, and to contribute meaningfully, regardless of whether that contribution fits neatly into traditional hierarchies of labor.

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Cover graphic courtesy Medium