Engineer - calls to departments before send resume?

[civilengineer]

I've seen a few people talk about calling their department prior to sending resume (seems to mostly be RP?).

Is this a common thing to do across all departments?

I've worked for a structural contractor for a few years and looking to work directly for the utilities.

The engineering departments I've been to, I can't see anyone being super happy about receiving that call.

Maybe it's just an RP thing?