Business Networking? Know Who You Are Calling!
October 7, 2009 at 7:11 pm aepcentral 3 comments
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!
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Entry filed under: Civil Engineering, Interviewing, Recruiting.
blog.civilengineeringcentral.com 
1.
Gemma Capella | October 14, 2009 at 9:14 am
I am on sales. And even I agree with this post, I have to say that it’s not always easy or possible to find out who decides in an organization….and worst more information about this person.
Sometimes, the only change I have is to send an email to info@…, which normally means no feedback.
Luckily, the last years, social sites like linkedin increasing its presence in professinals, and helps a lot to find people, and know about them.
Any other suggestion about this, is always welcome.
Regards
Gemma
Carol, if you have more ideas about having information from people, there are always welcome.
Gemma
2.
Ben Matthews | October 12, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Excellent post Carol. LinkedIn is making it easier for people to do that homework prior to the calls.
3.
Shady | October 9, 2009 at 12:17 am
Yes, I’m totally agreeing with you. It happened with me that I received such silly calls from recruiters. But I think that’s because they are working under pressure and trying to hunt candidates as fast as possible to gain bonus, thus they don’t have time to do such search!
Regards,
Shady Gabr,PMP
search for me and you will know me 🙂