I'm getting the impression that your comment implicitly endorses airport personnel [edit: immigration officers] attempting to find out if people "fake" their occupation. I don't think that wasn't your intention, but that's how the comment looks like, to me.
And people reading it might not like that, because airport personnel in general are (I think) likely to do lots of mistakes, if they start trying to verify people's occupations. So traveling somewhere, wold become like rolling a dice — bad luck dice roll = go home again (you happened to meet the wrong & incompetent personnel at the airport). (I didn't downvote.)
They aren't airport personnel. They are immigration officers.
What I read in the last thread about an incident like this was that they are less interested in the actual answer and more in how you respond. I guess mannerisms can give away things.
I know the last time I was pulled aside in US customs and had them go through all my stuff at one point I said, "Sorry, I'm just a little out of it." And one of the agents immediately said, "Why?" I said, "Because I've been traveling for over 24 hours now." Apparently that was good enough but I think they are trying to look for things in people's behavior that may be off.
And it's not like this is just a US thing. My last visit to the UK I was asked quite a few questions about why I was there, where I would be, what I'd do, etc. I've got a Hungarian residence permit and if I'm entering Schengen in Hungary they never ask me anything but if I come in through different place - Schipol most often, it's not unusual for them to ask me stuff about myself, what I do, etc.
My last visit to Ukraine a few weeks ago, when I check into my hotel they made a copy of my passport information page and then had me find the stamp I'd gotten at the airport and they copied that. I know that's not the government guys but that was a new one for me. I'm used to giving passport info. for checking into a hotel but I've never seen them do that. Each place is different and to me it's all just a matter of degrees.
Interesting to hear about this :-) I haven't been travelling that much — good to know what might happen, else I might have gotten quite nervous. + Thanks for the "immigration officers" clarification.
And people reading it might not like that, because airport personnel in general are (I think) likely to do lots of mistakes, if they start trying to verify people's occupations. So traveling somewhere, wold become like rolling a dice — bad luck dice roll = go home again (you happened to meet the wrong & incompetent personnel at the airport). (I didn't downvote.)