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While most work on image has focused on character traits, we argue that, with respect to professions, roles represent an important, underexplored source of image. Employing qualitative data from 85 members of four professions, we identify “role-based image discrepancies”—misalignments between what professionals perceive as the content of their professional work and what they believe others think constitutes the professionals' professional work—as a salient and costly issue for professionals. Specifically, we find that professionals believe that clients' perceptions of their roles lead clients not only to devalue professions but also to have misaligned expectations about the process and outcomes of the professional-client relationship. Further, professionals perceive that these client evaluations hinder the professional-client interaction and, consequentially, lead to productivity and emotional costs. In response to the …