This seems counter to almost every CS hiring job talk I have attended. The professors almost always seem to be receptive of people who lay down the basics for

This seems counter to almost every CS hiring job talk I have attended. The professors almost always seem to be receptive of people who lay down the basics for everyone in the room, and then systematically place their work using this newly situated academic landscape. I mean, how is a databases professor supposed to understand a SOTA CNN, if they don't understand CNNs to begin with. Maybe OP was simply stuck in the wrong (or right) kind of toxic workplace.