It's definitely about identifying where they can slot into society, and what it even means to exist within one. It is also about discerning what pieces of society exist in a more grounded reality and which are part of the grander meta-society that we play the hierarchy games within. A professorship to her meant she had won one of the games. An achievement within the university meta-game, which was important to her but probably more relevant, others thought it was important too.
Making bread will be important for as long as we need food, but a university degree is only important while the society that regards them highly still exists in a particular configuration. She convinced herself at first that getting a professorship was important to her because it was important to the society she was taking part in, and when that society started to fall apart, suddenly the meta-game didn't seem so important.
I come from a really young country and so it's sometimes hard to take our little society seriously, it's more obvious that it is all made up and the pandemic has also made it feel pretty vulnerable and precarious. What good is a university degree when there are no jobs left to find it important?
I can be envious of countries with a long heritage that can make the rules of society feel far more permanent and grounded, like they were borne from history itself. But it's just a perception mostly. How I feel about it doesn't change what it is just whether I am willing to invest in playing.