It’s not always necessary, but it’s becoming increasingly common for tenders to ask for copies of professional resumes for key staff to be included in the tender response submission.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a tender submission that hasn’t wanted to know all about the skills and experience of the management team and key staff members who will be responsible for the delivery of the contract requirements and the quality of the outcomes.
So, should you spend the time (and money if you get professional help) to get those resumes up to date and displayed in a company-branded template that demonstrates the continuity of information? In my humble opinion, the answer is very clear — yes.
Here’s why:
Leaving it until the last minute to madly try to cobble together some professional summary resume for you and your staff will result in poorly written documents that don’t show you in the best possible light.
Most of the business owners I work with don’t have a resume since they’ve been running their own business for many years and have simply never had the need to develop one - so leave it until the last minute (refer to point 1).
Resumes for key staff may exist but are usually old. Don't include the current company and may not be relevant to the current position - so it gets left until the last minute to update (refer to point 1) or, even worse, gets submitted as a year's out-of-date document.
Even if everyone’s professional resume template is relatively current, they are likely to all be in different formats, which doesn’t do anything to reinforce your brand or the professionalism of your business.
Each resume is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your skills, qualifications, experience and achievements in far more detail than you can generally fit into the tender response schedule.
Well-written resumes provide a profile of team members and are the first building block to develop relationships and trust between your team and the tender issuer.
You can customise each professional summary for a resume for each tender - this doesn’t take much. Sometimes, it might be just changing the order of specific points, wording, or certain role responsibilities.
You can be concise. No one wants to wade through a 10-page resume when it should only take two. It is particularly relevant if the tender instructions include a page limit for resumes.
That’s it! If I can provide one piece of advice, it would be to start working on your professional resumes early on in the tender process (or before the next opportunity hits your inbox) so you have them ready to go (apart from any small bits of customisation needed).
If you need a hand, I’m here to help! I’ve developed awesome resumes for loads of my clients, and I can help you too - just give me (Pauline) a call at 0400 514 579, contact me here or shoot me an email at pauline@tenderwise.com.au.