If you attend any engineering conference and sit in a technical session, there’s a good chance that the speaker will say some things you simply don’t understand.  Then when you sit down at lunch or at the bar, you’ll meet new friends who are working on some amazing and ambitious projects.  The tendency for many engineers is to feel overwhelmed and underskilled.  I’ve had more than one new engineer tell me they’re certain they are the dumbest person in the room.  The truth is that a lot of engineers feel that way.  The only truly dumb engineer is the one who is happy to stay at their current education level and not grow and learn in their chosen profession.

It’s true that most new engineers lack some skills that are fundamental to the profession.  It’s extraordinarily common for electronics engineers to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering having never designed a printed circuit board.  It’s likely that for the first years in the profession that you’ll take a while to get up to speed on simulation, layout, and design software, something you’ll see veteran colleagues fly through.

Comprehension takes time.  Experience requires opportunities.  And the only way to gain experience and understanding is to jump in and learn.  Remember that the experts you meet at the conferences got there through exceptional opportunities, not through exceptional intellect.  If something can be done by a human, it can be done by you.