I recently celebrated my one year anniversary at Point Park. It’s hard to believe I’ve been a working professional for 365+ days already. I’ve done and learned so much in the short year I’ve been here. This month I’m sharing the most important lessons I’ve learned in my first year as a new professional.

1. Trust in your abilities.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous when I started this job. Sure, I was successful in social media as a graduate assistant, but this was the big leagues. I was now making every decision for every platform. That was a little intimidating. Looking back at the last year, I’ve had more success than I could have imagined. Our Instagram account won an Education Digital Marketing gold award, and I won a Striving to Achieve Remarkable Service (STARS) award for my work at Point Park.

The lesson: Trust yourself and your abilities. Know that you were hired because you’re capable of doing the work and then some. When you let go of the fear of messing up, you give yourself the freedom to be creative and do your best work.

2. Grow through what you go through.

I could never do this job without my student team. However, being a supervisor has definitely been my biggest challenge as a new professional. Managing other people is difficult in any role, but especially so in a first job. I’ve worked with outstanding students who inspire me to do more, and I’ve also had to let a few students go this year. I’m finding the balance between being flexible and firm, fun and professional, and providing a learning experience while still getting the needs of my office met.

The lesson: Take a challenging situation as an opportunity to grow. Ask for help when you need it. My colleague Kara Werkmeister has worked in residence life in various capacities for six years, and is the queen bee of supervisors. I lean on her and my student affairs squad when I’m struggling with a difficult situation.

3. Never stop working hard.

In grad school, I worked like crazy to gain experience and prove that I was qualified for a job. When I started in this role, I continued to work hard to prove that I was a good fit for the position. Now, one year later, I’m working even harder to grow our social media presence and to be the best at what I do.

The lesson: Getting the job doesn’t mean you’ve made it. Never stop paying your dues, working hard and challenging yourself. I’m always going to work like I have something to prove.

This post is part of the Emerging SA Pro series following 4 awesome people: Aracelis, Emalie, Felicia, and Patrick, as they blog monthly about 1 year of their journey as either a new SA Pro or SA grad student. We are proud to help them share their stories as they break into our field.