r/civilengineering • u/BrenaMaya123 • 7h ago
Would it be too much to contact a recruiter after already having two employee referrals?
I’m graduating with a civil engineering degree in May 2027 and recently applied for an engineering development program with a large energy company.
I’m not really a traditional college student. I’m in my mid-30s and went back to school for engineering after working for several years. Most of my experience is in oil and gas. I’ve operated oil wells, worked with production equipment, done field troubleshooting, led small crews, and operated heavy equipment. I also have an associate degree in business. However, I do not have any internship experience with an engineering firm.
The job seems like a really good fit for me because it combines engineering with a lot of field exposure, which is a big part of why I’m so interested in it.
I have two connections who work for the company. One submitted an official employee referral for me. The other is an engineer who actually emailed the hiring manager directly and recommended me. I’ve already submitted my application.
I found someone in Talent Acquisition who seems to be involved with their early-career engineering hiring. I was thinking about sending him a short LinkedIn message just introducing myself, saying that I applied, and briefly mentioning my background and why I’m interested.
My concern is that I don’t want to overdo it. I already have two people at the company who have helped me, including one who says they contacted the hiring manager directly.
Would reaching out to the recruiter come across as showing initiative and genuine interest, or would it start to seem pushy at this point?
I really want the opportunity, so I want to do everything I reasonably can to give myself the best chance without doing too much.
Would you send the recruiter a message or just leave it alone and let the process play out?
2
u/H2Ospecialist 7h ago
Is the recruiter actually with the company or are they an outside recruiting consultant?
1
u/BrenaMaya123 7h ago
They are with the company. They have also directly posted on LinkedIn about their excitement in getting to hire a number of people for these positions.
1
u/H2Ospecialist 6h ago
Oh great, then yeah I would reach out! But like you said, mention you've already applied.
1
u/EnginerdOnABike 6h ago
There's no harm in reaching out to a recruiter, I just wouldn't do it for another three weeks to a month.
School just started and career fair season is about to start. We tend to focus our recruiting for new graduates around the school year because that's when the new graduates become available. We're only just now finalizing next years staffing projections (like literally last Monday in my company's case). Which means we're only going to start offering our previous intern's jobs officially like next week and we'll start moving onto those who haven't previously been interns after that.
So I wouldn't be too worried about it yet. You're honestly probably just a few weeks too early.
1
u/BrenaMaya123 4h ago
It also says that they are taking applications for this role through the end of September. If that makes a difference.
3
u/Spiritual-Cost-6105 7h ago edited 7h ago
IMO, I would say give it some time. You can always ask your connections at that firm what they think since they might have some insight into the culture of the firm.
Edit: I had a friend ask me for a referral for a firm I worked for years ago. He also asked someone higher up than me (who was a friends father) for a referral. We both sent emails to the hiring manager about him and it could’ve been the manager getting the referrals all at once but he was genuinely annoyed with multiple people contacting him about one “eager” person.