Congrats! As someone who only got to work with the industry, envious of the enthusiam of the teams, I can appreciate your excitement.
I can totally understand the "negative" comments and appreciate them. I dont even see them as negative....
That's because they weren't. How many young adults/teenagers are thrilled when they get their first car/ they are right to be. And the adults around them, people who have been around cars for many years and have built up experience and wisdom, will provide warnings of things to watch out for. Everything from "don't forget to fill the tank" to "don't drive like a moron." Only a fool would ignore that wisdom or see it as needlessly cynical. It's *needfully* cynical.
If you want real, solid engineering advice:
don't let the bastards grind you down. And there will be bastards. The automotive industry has to sell its product to the general public; the aerospace industry largely to the *government.* While you can't escape governmental meddling and red tape no matter what you do, when they are the bulk of your income, they *dominate.* And boy howdy do they love to dominate, everything from taxes to regulations on what to build, how, buying from whom, for how much. And now all the DIE nonsense and all the rest, tinkering at the micron level. Learn to embrace the suck. Read you some Lovecraft.
Also: yes, failure is the *heart* of good engineering. How strong is that new structural material? You don't test to "it survived to XYZ pounds, so it's fine," you test it till it breaks. THAT'S how you learn. Proper engineering is
filled with things snapping, corroding, bursting into flames, exploding. THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE, BABY! Learn how to appreciate the "negative," to understand failure modes. Be the guy who can look at a design and say "this bit right here... this is where it'll fail first..."
and be right. They'll hate you for it... and they'll find you indispensable, if you have the office politics chops.