I'm a junior engineer, but I inherited a project mid-construction because the designer left. I wasn't around for the early phases, but now I’m running the site meetings. I'm stressed about the technical gap and being asked questions I don't know the answers to. I don't want to appear clueless in front of the clients, even though I am. Is it okay to say that I don't know, but I will get back to them? Or does that look unprofessional?

How do you know when it’s time to leave a job vs. stick it out and push through a rough patch? For me it comes down to whether the core reasons I took the role are still intact. If the work is still interesting and the people are decent, a rough patch is survivable. But if I’m dreading Mondays every single week, that’s usually a signal worth listening to.

What engineering discipline would you recommend new students specialize in (or avoid) given the current/future job market?

Do you think engineers spend enough time thinking about the user experience of internal tools? I’ve seen teams tolerate painful internal systems that they’d never ship to customers.

Do you think engineering gets more technical or more psychological over time? The longer I work with teams and systems, the more human behavior seems to matter.