What I actually do. My job is super interesting, but I can't find a good way to explain it to outsiders. I am a software engineer in the games industry. If I worked on gameplay it would be a bit easier, but I work on core tech/central engine tools. A layperson has no idea what that means and any examples I can think of to give them are just as confusing unless they already have some familiarity with AAA game dev infrastructure and workflows. This is surely a failure of me not being able to find a good way to explain it yet; it feels like I'm working on so many different things in this area that there isn't a single clear-cut description I can come up with that an outsider would easily understand.
I'm working mainly with machine learning field, if there is something difficult for me, then it means I dont fully understand it. Then I'm trying to improve my knowledge. The good test of understanding is to try explain it to the wife :)