We investigated relationships between emotional intelligence, micro expression recognition and professional performance in two pre-registered cross-sectional studies. Study 1 (N = 86) explored the relationship between micro expression recognition, emotional intelligence and self-reported subjective professional performance and interpersonal skills in an online sample. Study 2 (N = 125) also utilized an online study to determine if there are differences in micro expression recognition and emotional intelligence between two employment sectors proposed to involve differing levels of 'emotional labor', namely software development and retail. Results of Study 1 showed a positive association between emotional intelligence and micro expression recognition. There were no associations of micro expression recognition with interpersonal skills or professional performance. Study 2 replicated the association between emotional intelligence and micro expression recognition, but provided no evidence for differences in emotional intelligence between retail and software development workers. Retail workers showed marginally higher scores on micro expression recognition. There was also no association of micro expression recognition with self-estimated professional performance, regardless of the participants' profession. The findings indicate that micro expression recognition may be closely related to emotional intelligence, but that it may also have a separate component, which may differ across different professions.