First impressions matter. Whether you are interviewing for a job or speaking at an all-staff meeting for the first time, others are forming assessments about who you are and what you bring to the table.
If you want others to take you seriously and to recognize your value in professional settings, be intentional about how you speak about yourself and your work, especially when introducing yourself to new colleagues.
The next time you respond to the question “What do you do for work?” or introduce yourself in a professional context, keep the following tips in mind.
1. Mention details that signal your competence and expertise.
When it comes to establishing credibility in a professional introduction, focus on two main points: 1) what you do for work and 2) how good you are at what you do. The latter can be implied by details I call “credibility markers.”
Credibility markers are pieces of information that signal your level of competence, seniority or expertise. These can be details related to the number of years you have spent in your industry, the number of people you manage, the impacts of your work or the leadership roles you have held.
Credibility markers can also be other forms of social proof, such as well-known employers, business partners, clients, collaborators or industry leaders you have worked with.
2. Highlight your total work experience within your industry, not just the number of years you have worked for your current employer.
In a 2023 study of women leaders in the U.S., women under the age of 40 reported experiencing role incredulity — a term coined by Amy Diehl and Leanne M. Dzubinski, the authors of Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back at Work, to describe a form of gender bias where women are mistakenly assumed to be in support roles rather than leadership roles.
Role incredulity is also experienced by women who appear to be younger than they actually are. If this applies to you, it can have significant implications on your credibility; your peers may not always take your ideas seriously or treat you with the esteem you deserve.
In my own research interviews with early- to mid-career women and professionals of color, this was a common experience among women of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent.
“Looking younger than I am is probably one of my greatest pain points in terms of building credibility when I step into a room that I’m unknown in, and that is incredibly frustrating,” Kim Vu, vice president of environmental, social and governance (ESG) at Remitly, told me.
To navigate this pain point, Vu is intentional about highlighting her total work experience within her industry, not just the number of years she has spent at a particular company. Vu provided the following sample language:
“Hi. My name is Kim, and I’m with [Company]. I’ve been at this company for X years, but I’ve been in the industry for almost 20 years.”
By introducing herself this way, Vu is communicating to colleagues that she is their peer, so they should treat her like one.
3. Adapt credibility markers to your audience.
As you decide which details to include in your introduction, reflect on the types of information that will resonate with your audience, and be intentional about highlighting the details that matter most to them.
If you want to boost your perceived credibility, you do not necessarily need to gain new accolades or qualifications. Sometimes, it’s as easy as reframing the experiences you already have. The following is an example from my own career.
As a professional keynote speaker and corporate event host, I always highlight my background as a former news anchor when I introduce myself to potential clients. For many clients and corporate event planners, this work experience holds a lot of weight because it shows my competence as a public speaker.
In these conversations, I used to introduce myself by saying I hosted a program on “Crosscut/KCTS 9.” KCTS 9 Public Television is Seattle’s PBS news channel that garners approximately 1.67 million viewers each week throughout Washington state and Canada, and it merged with the news website Crosscut in 2015.
Since most of my clients are not based in Seattle, many of them were unfamiliar with “Crosscut/KCTS 9” and did not fully understand the impact or scope of my work based on my self-introductions. Some people mistakenly assumed I worked for a small local news website and did not realize my work was broadcast to a large TV audience.
To rectify this, I started introducing myself by saying I anchored the news on “Seattle’s PBS news channel.” This was a much stronger credibility marker among my clients because most of them were familiar with PBS, a nationally recognized media brand.
4. Be strategic when stating your job title.
Many people opt to speak in more general terms about their work but forget to mention their job titles (e.g., “I work in communications for an affordable housing nonprofit,” “I work on Alexa devices at Amazon” or “I work in TV news”). If you are in this camp, you might be missing an opportunity to highlight the value you bring to your workplace.
For example, compare the statements “I work in TV news” and “I am the main news anchor at [news station].”
The first statement only tells us about the speaker’s industry. In comparison, the second statement portrays the speaker as someone in a position of leadership within their workplace and gives us a better idea of the skills they have.
Keep in mind, the job title you use in your introductions does not have to be the same job title that is listed in your company’s HR documents.
Titles like “project manager” or “program manager,” for example, are common in tech corporations. However, these titles by themselves are vague, especially if your audience includes people who work outside of your company or industry. Instead, when you introduce yourself to a new crowd, use a title that paints a clearer picture of the work you do (e.g., “sales manager,” “corporate event planner,” “video content producer,” etc.).
In my own career, I shifted from introducing myself as a former TV “host” (the title listed in my HR documents) to identifying myself as a former “news anchor,” as this title better describes the scope of my work and commands more respect from the types of clients I work with. This small change in my self-introductions had a significant impact on how my clients perceived me and valued my work, and I was offered better paying opportunities because of it.
What are some other strategies that have helped you establish credibility in the workplace? Share your stories by commenting below or sending me a message on LinkedIn. Your response may be featured in a future Forbes article.
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