We've seen the career goalposts move so much in 25 years
I remember when I was a kid/teen (90s), the suggestion to study what you like and follow your dreams was as mundane of advice as "save money for a rainy day". It was normal, accepted and celebrated. Do a job you love and you won't work a day in your life, amirite?
Then... when you went to college, the kids in "respectable" fields sneered at the anthropology and history majors: "history? what do you gonna do with that, teach?" ... forgetting that those kids just followed the commonly shoveled advice from the 90s and studied what they loved.
Now... "Computer science grad? LOL why did you go to college? You should have done a trade/nursing!" There are no jobs in engineering! There are no jobs in business! MBAs are doing fire sales to get students in the seats.
Like the goalposts moved miles in the past 20 years. All these people - peers, parents, neighbors - instead of acknowledging that the system is fundamentally antagonistic and hostile to workers, that the problem is entirely systemic, would rather blame the individual. Easier and less scary that way.
I cannot wait for the next wave when the trades will stop hiring (probably because of automation + white collars not being to afford tradesmen because they lost their jobs to AI), "well why did you go into a trade? You should have become a farmer! DUH. It's obvious there are no trade jobs!"