Why do some people feel like they need to put down others jobs?

Imagine growing up being told how gifted you are and having dreams of going to Oxford. Then by the end of Secondary School, you've failed your GCSE's or got average marks. You now suddenly lose a lot of self-confidence and wonder if it's still possible to realise your dreams. The universities you applied to (you tried being a bit ambitious because atleast **one** of them might accept you, right?) reject you because you're just not an interesting or worthy prospect. Your life is now turned upside down. You didn't plan well enough and now you won't be going to uni. What do you do? Well, you need money and your parents will be damned before they give your freeloading self another penny. You get to work. You work a job you don't like and come to the "realisation" you're simply not smart enough for uni so you think of skills you can achieve to get a decent job without it. Nothing comes to mind and in the end you settle for a normal paying job living a life you never wanted constantly averting your mind from trying to remember the dream you once had. You still hold on to lingering remnants of the brilliant ego you once had that promised that you were destined for greatness. It whispers to you every so often and asks for a revival to which you desperately attempt to achieve. You find someone who you think is worse than you. They're not. But you're desperate. You're not happy. You need to feel __something__. You ask the question..."what do you do for work?" And hope for a response that can make you feel superior.