Good comment and I picked up on similar things, including pulling up at the "professor didn't find me interesting enough to talk to after they asked me what I d

Good comment and I picked up on similar things, including pulling up at the "professor didn't find me interesting enough to talk to after they asked me what I did" anecdote. She seems quite status-minded, which yes, is a fairly widely held obsession. Ppl who judge you from how you answer "What do you do?" are exactly the people you want to avoid / turn away, so giving as bland an answer to this question is only a good thing, whether what you're currently doing would be considered 'interesting' or not.