Isn't that the truth!! I was scared wit-less at my first job, just waiting for someone to present me with an engineering problem, and have them realize I hadn't a clue as how to design anything. I could do matrix math, permutations, differential calculations, relativistic physics, express Reynolds Equations, and roughly explain Special Relativity.
But, connect a J-K Flip-Flop into a timing circuit?
However, to my school's credit; the assortment of tools and concepts I had learned really helped me absorb new material quickly, easily and orderly.
My degree was in Civil Engineering, but I could absolutely relate to what you are saying.
In my first job, I stayed late reading blueprints to understand the buildings I was working on.In school, we had never gone through an entire set of building blueprints. There was so much in the real world that wasn;t covered.
I asked a lot of questions and didn’t act like I knew it all—because I sure didn’t.
I listened and learned and grew, step by step.
But like you, I had a toolbox of methods and discipline that I could apply to acquire the information I needed and to use it correctly.
Even now, I laugh at that time period and what an eye-opener it was. Kept me humble, that’s for sure.
And 36 years later, I’m still learning.
When I was a TA in the seventies, teaching an introductory physics lab, we had a unit on basic circuits, starting with a battery and a light bulb. I remember one kid who was very upset about it. Asking him what was the matter, he explained that he had learned all kinds of logic circuitry in high school, and had thought that he understood it, but after seeing the basics of electric circuits presented to him, he realized that he hadn’t understood it at all.
I tried to tell him that this was a good thing, not a bad thing, which I thought then and I think now, but he was just too upset. I hope he made out OK, as I would like to think he did.