By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com

Business networking is critical.  Whether you are trying to entice a potential client, recruit a new employee or find a new job, you need to do your homework. With access to a computer and basic knowledge of how to use a search engine, everyone can be an amateur detective. Google my name and the first thing that pops up is “Executive Search and Recruiters…” There is no excuse to cold call someone for networking and asking for their help without knowing who you are calling! It reflects poorly on you.

As an affiliate member of various professional societies revolving around the civil engineering industry (ie ITE, SMPS, WTS International, etc) my name is listed in their membership directories. Every couple of months, recruiters email or call me. They see “President” as my listed title and call to see if I would be interested in pursuing a Transportation or Marketing Leadership job. It is all I can do not to ask the recruiter what foolish civil engineering company actually hired them to recruit for the firm?! When I get those calls I usually laugh and ask if they did research on me. Inevitably they “fib” and say that they have. We both know that if they had, they never would have called me.  I am not a civil engineer but I am an experienced headhunter/executive recruiter/experienced networker.

Over the past years, we have encouraged readers of our BLOGs  to think outside of the box and network whenever possible. It is acceptable to ask for business “hook ups” from other industry connections.  Just know who you are calling and what information you need BEFORE you network!

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