Engineering and Your Individual Brand

From an ENR blog posting on professional reputation:

"The Internet has also changed the way firms identify and procure design and construction services. Recent SMPS Foundation research showed that some clients now have a “don’t find us, we’ll find you” mentality. They are doing their own research; some sources have indicated that as much as 65% to 75% of the buying decision process has been completed before an owner ever even reaches out to A/E/C firms. They are checking out company websites. They are Googling the names of potential team members and reading their LinkedIn profiles. They are making notes of the A/E/C professionals who are writing the articles and blogs they read, speaking at their society meetings, or being interviewed in industry media. 

Some owners even report creating their personal “dream teams,” reaching out to an architect at one firm, a mechanical engineer at another, and a construction manager at a third. And while “arranged marriages” may not always work and actually contrast with the premise of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), some owners are increasingly utilizing this approach, much like I might buy a suit at one store, a dress shirt at another, and a tie at third. Maybe one store doesn’t have everything that I want, so I need to shop around. The Web and social media have enabled B2B (business-to-business) buyers to incorporate consumer buying behaviors.

But what does all this mean to A/E/C firms, professionals, and marketers?

It means that reputation is becoming the key differentiator. It means that every professional – no matter what their level in a company – needs to work diligently to build their own personal brand. And then maintain it continually.

And the great thing is that it is not as difficult to build a strong personal reputation as you may think. It takes work. It takes persistence. Like anything else, it often takes a bit of failure along the way. But it is absolutely worth it because developing a dynamic personal brand can help you get a job, advance in your career, and obtain promotions. It can help keep you around when times are tough because you will be indispensable to your company, no matter how large or small it happens to be. And as an added benefit, your strong reputation can also bring in work for your firm. There’s no downside, and in this new norm that increasingly focuses on individual A/E/C team member credentials, it is imperative that you stand out."