How important was the specific major you chose in college?

I majored in linguistics and I had no shortage of people telling me it was a “joke major” and I needed to major in STEM for my college education to mean anything. Of course, I didn’t want a high-paying job in tech like many of my Silicon Valley peers, I wanted to go into academia, so my choice seemed apt for that (I am currently in grad school). That said, I have many friends who went into tech and they majored in everything from art history to psychology. The specific choice seemed irrelevant. What was relevant to employers was that they were able to stay committed and complete a four-year degree, something that is often more valuable than the specific choice of major in many cases.

How relevant is what you studied in college to the career you ended up in? Did you ever regret your choice of major? Have you had the experience of having a “useless degree”?