Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg questions whether college prepares students for today’s jobs

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is once again challenging conventional thinking around higher education. Speaking on the This Past Weekend podcast with comedian Theo Von, Zuckerberg questioned whether college is truly equipping students for today's job market.

“I’m not sure that college is preparing people for the jobs that they need to have today,” he said. “All the student debt issues are… really big.”

Zuckerberg, who famously left Harvard to launch Facebook, has long been an advocate for alternative learning models.

Together with his wife, Priscilla Chan, he has funded tuition-free private schools focused on underserved communities, reflecting a growing trend among tech leaders who are reimagining the role of education.

“College is just so expensive for so many people, and then you graduate and you’re in debt,” Zuckerberg said. “It would be one thing if it was just kind of like a social experience… The fact that it’s not preparing you for the jobs that you need and you’re kind of starting off in this big [financial] hole… I think that’s not good.”

He also noted that public sentiment may be shifting. “There’s going to have to be a reckoning… and people are going to have to figure out whether that makes sense. It’s sort of been this taboo thing to say, ‘Maybe not everyone needs to go to college.’ But people are probably coming around to that opinion a little more now than maybe like 10 years ago.”

Still, Zuckerberg acknowledged that college can play an important role in a person’s development.

“There’s a question of how much [college] is about learning and how much of it is about… learning how to be a grownup before you go out into the world,” he said.

He credited his time at Harvard with shaping both his personal and professional journey.

“I met a lot of people who were really important in my life,” he recalled. “I mean Priscilla [his wife], my cofounders at my company, and a bunch of people who are still close friends to this day. So I think that’s almost more of it than, like, whatever class you took.”

Zuckerberg’s comments come at a time when the cost, relevance, and structure of higher education are under growing scrutiny, especially as more young people explore tech-driven careers and non-traditional learning paths.