The very broad strokes of it? Sure. The specific nature of it? Absolutely not. I'm in a fairly specialized branch of printing, and while I understand the basic principles, I couldn't explain, for instance, why it is that the printable CMYK gamut is so much smaller than the sRGB gamut, which is in turn far smaller than the visible color gamut. Nor could I explain why certain formulations of ink don't produce linear colors, and why inks for different processes tend to broadly be more or less linear.

I'm in Product management. Even my own family don't really get what I do

If anyone has any idea on how to explain generative AI to someone from the 1700s, let me know. Maybe we can try explain my job then.

We have these things that are like stained glass books and I make how the glass looks.

Front-end developer.

Hell no

I test and design massive industrial electrical systems used in steel mills, power grid distribution, space equipment, coal mines, oil & gas, etc etc etc.

They didn't even figure out electricity at the time

I'm a glorified locksmith for magic wiz boxes. Technically I do other things as well, but mostly it's just getting past the locks that people have lost the key for.

There are also magical entities that take works from the nether realm and bring them into existence here, only they are all powered by grumpy demons and so I don't deal with those.

My job is to digitize cassette tapes, VHS tapes, and other magnetic media.

So first I'd have to explain the miracle of how we managed to capture moving images and sounds onto these thin strips of plastic covered in rust. I'd follow that up by explaining how that technology is now considered quaint and out of date, and that these days we just get a thinking machine to remember that sort of thing for us.

I'm a magister, scholar, and merchant. (I own a technology company).

I'm a teacher. They would understand that I educate the young, but would be nowhere close to understanding my students. They would think I teach a few children of the wealthy when I actually teach hundreds from the poorest of families in my area. Including several imigrants who speak a different language and many students with various disabilities.

I make a long list of things for people to do in order to create a final outcome, and then keep track of the progress and find solutions for deviations.

Project manager.

They never really called it that, but I'm pretty sure the concept isn't new. Architects and the likes did pretty much the same when building ginormous structures back in ancient Rome and Egypt, so they'd get the idea. Probably wouldn't understand the project deliverable, but at least the process.

Hmm... I'm a cosplayer/erotica model. So a seamstress that gets naked for money? Not too outlandish, but they'd never understand what cosplay was.

Yes, my job has a fairly simple explanation. People who feel bad for whatever reason sit on my couch and I help them feel better.

Edit: I'm a therapist.

Anyone in the history of civilization would understand my job

I am paid to perform other duties as assigned.

Lots of "I use magic to do magic stuff" for talking to people not long after the Salem witch trials.

We have devised methods to allow performers, both thespian and musician, to be heard and seen by larger and larger audiences. These audiences can be several thousand. Imagine if an entire city came out to see the performance.

I am one of the individuals responsible for maintaining and operating those tools.

Easily, I think they had a form of food delivery in the 1700's, it's just faster now.

For sure they'd understand. My job had been around for quite a while (not a hooker)

i sell gold & silver so ye

I'd love a medieval version of this question lol.

I work with machines to create lessons for other machines to learn how to figure out you're sick before you feel sick.

Yeah... that sounds like bullshit haha

I use vastly advanced looms to do math

First I'd have to explain electricity. Then I'd have to explain electric circuits.... And the function of different components

THEN i could try to explain what my job was

Before the melancholia debilitated me, I worked a long time as an unguilded teamster.

I put roofs on, both slate and standing seam. They would probably be surprised at how much money the really rich people have. But explaining standing seam would be pretty easy.

We even get our copper from Revere, as in Paul Revere, though he wasn't born until 1735.

Yes.

I'm a Linux Administrator. I maintain machines that think.