OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS, I’ve grown far less sanguine about an earlier take on the topic of choosing a major in college. The old perspective was something like:

“College is a time to explore. Take anything and everything. See what works. Think a bit about where it might lead you. Try another direction if you’re not sure. Don’t expect to be sure. Who’s ever sure? Yadda-yadda, yadda-you …”

Time-honored advice, to be sure. Valuable for another time, another generation.

I took that advice — and a full six years to complete a 30-unit master’s. And — oh yeah — ca-ching, ca-ching.

But there’s nothing like certain life events to sharpen one’s perspective. Like having your own kids.

Abruptly, you begin applying the information about the trends of the global marketplace, demographics, business demands and slippery employment opportunities to your one-and-onlys. And now a new ethos emerges: Majors matter, in a bigger way than in the past.

And the sooner you can determine the one that’s a good fit for you — with plausible, sustainable employment options ahead, of course — the better.

What are those emerging trends? Employers can ask for more experienced, educated and credentialed workers, and the marketplace of job-seekers has mushroomed, including those from all ports of call. (And those international job-seekers, folks, are eager and plenty qualified to seriously compete.)

Technology advances often diminish — or eliminate — full categories of careers and the need for workers, even though they may create newer positions. But the numbers often don’t work out in that the net result is fewer actual openings long-term and full-time.

Meanwhile, as a matter of course new job seekers are encouraged to think of themselves as “portfolio workers,” needing to re-invent themselves and promote themselves on a regular, shifting-sands basis. Why? Their jobs are often project-driven — another term for impermanent, temporary jobs. By the time most of today’s high school graduates leave that interval in their education they are expected to have 10 jobs by the time they are 35.

The cold, hard truth, boldly articulated years ago by Wharton School of Economics meister Jeremy Rifkin in his book “The End of Work,” is this: There may well simply not be enough good jobs around to fit all those seeking them.

Enough dreariness. Ask around. Talk seriously with folks currently doing the kind of work you think you might wish to pursue someday and you’ll find that few fields are begging for replacements, though some are clearly in more of a growth mode than others. Find out, since today’s college grad has about a 40-year work-life ahead. (Needless to say, get used to pursuing “lifelong education.”)

And here are two tools that I’ve found really helpful over the past year. These can help sort out what majors might truly be interesting AND achievable for students from grades seven through college:

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/majors/history-us-history

This one is great at helping you “try on” and see yourself actually doing the tasks and the overall duties of a particular set of occupations commonly pursued after one majors in a chosen field.

http://whatcanidowiththismajor.com/major/

This site helps enlarge your vision: What exactly can I DO with a major in such and such a field? The options are broader than one might think, given the blinders of pop culture and the blather of most movies and TV shows.

Best of luck — stay flexible-but-not-gooey! And start digging deep and planning ahead!

Rob Peters is a long-time resident of Benicia. He has been a full-time counselor at Diablo Valley College for more than two decades.