Good luck on pre-residency ! That is quite a switch from something that deals with pathogens to talking to human and helping them with their issues.
Whenever I introduce myself to strangers, I just say I'm a unemployed blogger or a unemployed nurse, rank down your social standing points not to stand out otherwise you'll get treated differently
That is what I am doing quite often as well although it truly depends on the people I am interacting with. I don't think people need to know much about all the things I do because just like you, there are people in my circle that likes asking for money and so far, I've been saved from being asked that way since they think I am just some type of loser without money 😂
It's been an adjustment and the nature of work is like a 360 from the old one, feels like I'm relearning stuff I abandoned more than 3 years ago, like studying college all over again.
Dress average or down, pretend you don't have any cause people really are superficial when seeing strangers. I've been spending some time walking in the business parts of downtown, not the high end parts, I've spotted the upper middle class folks hiding in plain sight but you wouldn't think they're loaded because their clothes were too plain, had holes, and just had an ordinary overall attire. But what gives these people away were their scent / hygiene , white teeth (because you got to have a lot of spare money to even have room for dental cosmetics), the slight accent and dead giveaway called refined vocabulary. They can fake their looks but not their manners and I love this mini game of walking around town spotting them among us.
When I was younger, I thought having a lot of contacts on my phone book helped, I still do but the quality of social network mattered too. Now I like to limit the number of people I put in my personal circle as it limits my incidences of lending money which more than half the time I expect won't be coming back anyway.