With an average salary of £25,000 and potential earnings as high as £70,000 and above, a career in bid writing is an excellent avenue for graduates. Despite the high salary and room for expansion, many university leavers don’t know about the opportunities available to them.
It’s hard to know which direction to take your future when education finishes and the world is staring down at you.
This is especially true for humanities graduates, who have a plethora of options and huge competition. But whether you specialise in journalism, marketing, media, or anything in between – bid writing could be for you.
What is bid writing?
Bid writing consists of compiling a document - or series of documents - designed to convince potential clients that your company is best suited for their needs. Some Bid Writer jobs are internal, and others are for external consultancies that will be enlisted to assist with the process – regardless of which you choose, the daily requirements will be similar:
Research potential bids and clients
As a Bid Writer, your job will begin by scoping out contracts to be applied for. This stage will be the most crucial, because researching opportunities and associated requirements will mean your eventual bid is as informed as it can possibly be.
Key skills used in this step:
- Research
- Analysis
- Organisation
Gather relevant information
Once you’ve worked out what you’ll be writing a bid for, you need to gather all the relevant information on both your company and what you can provide – this is also known as a ‘bid library’.
By working alongside other departments within your organisation (including marketing, legal, and sales), you can establish a firm foundation to then begin building your bid upon.
Key skills used in this step:
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Delegation
Write a bid
This typically begins with a PQQ (Pre-Qualification Questionnaire), in which you need to confirm that your company is suitable for the proposed bid.
Then, there’s the Invitation To Tender. Alongside financial information, this is comprised of several qualitative questions that allow you to make your company the only option a potential client could go for.
The ITT is where your skills as a writer will be most valuable, as you need to structure responses to not only contain technical information, but deliver this in a manageable, understandable way.
Key skills used in this step:
- Written communication
- Attention to detail
- Technical knowledge
A job as a Bid Writer is an exciting prospect for graduates trying to work out their place in the employed world. Kieran McLoone, a university student interning here at Build Recruitment, said,
"I had no idea that bid writing was even a job, despite it containing everything I enjoy about my Creative Writing degree. It’s an attractive role, both financially and from an experience point of view, and is definitely something I’ll be looking at for future prospects."
For more information, please contact me on 0203 176 4790, or send an email to gary.sewell@buildrec.com.