How to Make a Great First Impression at Work

Research shows first impressions form in 100 milliseconds. Learn 5 science-backed strategies to make a great first impression at your new job.

The #1 Mistake Smart People Make at Work

Here’s what most ambitious professionals get wrong on day one: they walk in ready to prove how smart they are—and miss the chance to make a great first impression at work.

They prepare talking points about their experience. They rehearse answers that show off their expertise. They focus on looking competent.

And it backfires.

{/* ANECDOTE: Parking lot anxiety before first day */} I remember sitting in the parking lot before my first day at a new company, reviewing my notes on every team member’s role and every project I’d been briefed on. I had a whole strategy for sounding impressive. What I didn’t have was a strategy for being warm.

Harvard social psychologist Amy Cuddy discovered something that changes the game: when people meet you, they don’t first ask, “Is this person competent?” They ask, “Can I trust this person?” Warmth comes before competence in every first encounter. If you lead with credentials without establishing trust, you don’t come across as impressive—you come across as threatening.

Cuddy calls the ideal the “Happy Warrior”: someone clearly skilled but calm, approachable, and genuinely interested in others. Her advice? Connect, then lead.

If you’ve been pouring all your energy into doing great work while neglecting the people around you, here’s the equation that fixes everything.

Why People Skills Matter More Than You Think

Doing great work is only half the equation. The other half is building relationships with the people who see your work.

A study by Zhao and Liden found that interns who focused on likability behaviors were 55% more likely to receive a full-time job offer than those who didn’t—likability had a stronger influence than actual performance. People who are more likable at work are more likely to be promoted, earn higher salaries, and feel happier at work.

If you don’t have strong relationships, people won’t recognize you for the great job you do. Worse—they might not enjoy working with you. (And nobody wants to be that person.)

Great work + Great people skills = A great impression

How Fast First Impressions Form (And Why They Stick)

Here’s the part that should make you sit up straight: a Princeton University study by psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found that people form first impressions in one-tenth of a second.

That’s 100 milliseconds. Faster than a blink.

The researchers tested five traits—trustworthiness, competence, likability, aggressiveness, and attractiveness—and found something startling: giving people more time (up to a full second) didn’t change their judgments. It only made them more confident in the snap decision they’d already made.

Once that impression forms, it sticks. Klein and O’Brien found that people need to see many weeks of consistently good behavior to believe someone has genuinely improved—but only a few bad moments to decide someone has gotten worse. The deck is stacked: it’s far easier to lose a good impression than to earn one back.

5 Research-Backed Ways to Make a Great First Impression at Work

Whether it’s your first day at a new job, your first meeting with a new team, or your first encounter with a new colleague, these five strategies are grounded in research and immediately usable.

1. Lead with Warmth, Not Just Competence

Your body language speaks before you do. And in those first 100 milliseconds, people are reading it like a headline.

Start with the basics that signal warmth:

• A genuine smile. Not a polite grimace—a real smile that reaches your eyes (called a Duchenne smile). It activates trust-related responses in the person looking at you.
• Eye contact at 60–70%. Enough to show engagement, not so much that it feels like a staring contest.
• Open posture. Shoulders back, arms uncrossed, hands visible. Hiding your hands or fidgeting signals nervousness.
• A firm handshake. Brain imaging studies reveal that a handshake activates the brain’s reward center. It increases the positive impact of friendly behaviors and significantly reduces the negative impact of awkward or indifferent ones. For remote roles, your camera angle and lighting are the equivalent—position your camera at eye level and make sure your face is well-lit. Unmuting promptly and nodding visibly signal the same warmth a handshake does in person.
• Enthusiasm. Show genuine excitement about being there. A flat, going-through-the-motions energy reads as disengagement—even if you’re just nervous. A little visible enthusiasm goes a long way toward making people want to work with you.

Action Step: Before your next first meeting, do a 10-second body language check. Shoulders down, hands visible, genuine smile ready. Then greet the other person by name if you know it.

2. Arrive Early and Come Prepared

The sweet spot is 10 to 15 minutes before your scheduled start time. This gives you time to settle in, find the right room, and handle logistics without looking flustered. (If you arrive much earlier, wait in your car or a nearby coffee shop until the window opens.)

For remote roles, log in 5–10 minutes early to test your equipment and internet connection.

Bring a notebook—a physical one. Mueller and Oppenheimer found that people who take notes by hand perform significantly better on conceptual understanding than those who type. Handwriting is slower, which forces your brain to summarize and paraphrase rather than transcribe—leading to deeper processing.

Practical notebook strategies for new hires:

• Dedicate the first page to your 30/60/90 day goals
• Keep a running list of names, roles, and one personal detail per person
• Note questions as they arise so you don’t forget to ask them

3. Ask for Advice, Not Just Feedback

Harvard Business School research shows that asking for advice—rather than feedback—builds stronger relationships and makes you more likable. Feedback puts people in a judging role. Advice puts them in a helping role. People like helping.

Try this three-part script: (1) Share your goal. Tell the person what you’re trying to accomplish in your first weeks. (2) Acknowledge their expertise. Something like, “You’ve been here longer than I have and I’d love your perspective.” (3) Ask a specific question. Not “Any advice?” but “What’s one thing you wish you’d known in your first month here?”

This approach works because it’s specific, it flatters without being sycophantic, and it gives the other person a clear role: expert helper. People remember how you made them feel—and making someone feel like a valued expert is a powerful first impression.

Action Step: Identify one person on your team to approach in your first week. Use the three-part script above to open a real conversation.

4. Choose Your Own Label

One of the most underused strategies for making a lasting first impression is deciding how you want to be known—and then acting on it consistently from day one.

Think about the role you want to play on your team. Are you the person who simplifies complex problems? The one who connects people across departments? The one who always follows through?

Here are a few examples to spark your thinking:

• The Connector: You introduce people who should know each other. On day one, you ask your manager, “Who should I make sure to meet in my first two weeks?”
• The Problem Solver: You look for friction and remove it. Try asking: “What’s one thing that wastes 30 minutes of your week that I could take off your plate by Friday?”
• The Data Storyteller: You translate numbers into narratives. Volunteer to present a report as a story, not a spreadsheet.

You don’t have to announce your label—you just have to live it. Consistently showing up in one recognizable way makes you memorable and easy to champion when opportunities arise.

Action Step: Before your first week, write down one sentence: “I want to be known as the person who _____.” Then identify one concrete action you can take in the first three days to demonstrate it.

5. Build Your Social Memory

Remembering details about the people you work with is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to deepen relationships fast. When you remember that your colleague mentioned their daughter’s soccer tournament, or that your manager is stressed about an upcoming board presentation, and you follow up—people feel seen.

This isn’t manipulation. It’s attention. And attention is one of the rarest things you can give someone at work.

Here’s a simple system:

• After every new conversation, jot down one personal or professional detail in your notebook (this is why the running list of names and details in Tip 2 matters)
• Before your next interaction with that person, glance at your notes
• Open with a follow-up: “How did that presentation go?” or “Did your team win on Saturday?”

Over time, this habit compounds. People start to see you as someone who genuinely cares—and that perception is one of the most durable first impressions you can make.

Action Step: After your next three conversations with new colleagues, write down one detail you learned about each person. Follow up on at least one of those details within the week.

The Bottom Line

Making a great first impression at work isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being present. Lead with warmth before competence. Show up prepared. Ask for advice. Decide how you want to be known. And pay attention to the people around you.

The research is clear: people decide whether they trust you before they decide whether they respect you. Get the trust right first, and the rest follows.

If you want to keep building the people skills that make every first impression count, start with learning how to craft a compelling elevator pitch—because how you introduce yourself in 30 seconds shapes everything that comes after.

Read next: Master your body language for every workplace situation, learn powerful conversation starters for networking, and explore how to make a grand entrance in any setting. Great work gets you in the door. Great people skills keep you there.