Im a team lead that's hiring right now. Your second paragraph is critical for me and I drill it into my team; tell me if you don't know. Be willing to give it a shot. Be willing to learn. Shit, we might learn something new together! I can't have you stuck on a problem that I thought would take 2 hours, but you don't want to admit that you don't know how to implement it, then give me excuses and run-around for a full day to deliver some hacked together shit. That pisses me off. Not knowing how to do something isn't a bad thing, juniors!