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It’s All About Relationships

MET • Jan 07, 2016

Relationship: the state of being connected

 

Engineering projects, project teams, department teams, clients, civil engineering recruiters all have one similar characteristic – RELATIONSHIPS. This includes our relationship with ourselves, our colleagues, our supervisors, our clients, our candidates. We cannot escape this inevitable connection.

 

How we treat others, through our words and more importantly our actions, will direct our success. It’s about being connected and trying to treat everyone with respect and consideration. If you have established, good relationships, no one can take them away from you.

 

As an architecture and civil engineering recruiter, I’m asked daily as to how I conduct my searches. My answer centers around the relationships I have established throughout my nearly 30 years of recruiting. Recruiting is a profession that is much more than a business. If done correctly, it involves understanding client needs, culture and personalities, and trying to make the best match with a candidate.

 

Those of us who love our jobs understand that we are dealing with people’s lives. We try to get to know our clients and candidates, and many become longtime friends. I find that the same can be said for just about all in the engineering consulting business or for that matter, any business.

 

Prior to the development of LinkedIn, connections were a bit more difficult to establish and sustain. It took a conscious effort. Today with the assistance of social media, a click of the mouse and I can reach thousands of A/E connections.

 

But with the ease of staying connected, are many consultants losing that ability to pick up the phone and keep the REAL connection? If you lost your job tomorrow, would your connections answer the phone if you called? Are your clients really YOUR clients or are they your company’s clients?

 

It’s all about relationships.

The Metzner Group Blog

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