Wallybird, if I may brag a little in turn, when I left college and entered industry I had experience far beyond that of the usual graduate. (Which seemed to piss off some of my peers no end.) I entered industry as an electronics engineer in the communications electronics field with an MS degree. I had already been designing and modifying radios for over a decade on my own. I had a very good idea what those silly little electrons I was pushing around could do.
I continued to learn. And I pushed around ever larger batches of electrons. (Then I literally got bored and moved over into the software realm - partly by "long story" accident.)
And I was an exception with two things in my favor, the self taught experience I had and a strong affinity for communications electronics and software. I was emotionally committed to my job.
It sounds like you were to. And I hope you have continued to learn. I presume you are not quite so naive today as you were straight out of your first flight training. And maybe you've learned some practical things about what you're flying now that were not taught in any schools.
However, there is evidence on the ground that people who are not highly committed to their job, in love with it as it were, who get into pilot training and somehow come out the other end with their piece of paper entitling them to be a member of a transport aircraft's cockpit crew. Just off hand 9/11 comes to mind right off.
I am very distrustful of somebody who comes out of training of any sort as a know it all or thinking he knows it all. Generally they don't. And their overconfidence, their hubris, can lead to a fall. (It is not inconceivable something on the CVR that has been released may implicate PF of having a fatal case of hubris.
I had the good sense, when I hit industry, to realize I knew a lot, had a near intuitive feel for what electrons would do, and anticipated I still had a things to learn that would be fun having learned them. (I admit to bitching about the learning process.)