Sales, Marketing and Communications
Bid Writer
Bid writers prepare documents aimed at winning contracts to provide services or to apply for funding for projects.
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Entry-level education
Bachelor’s degree
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Job outlook
What does a Bid Writer do?
Bid writers prepare documents aimed at winning contracts to provide services or to apply for funding for projects. They may prepare and write bid documents for the company that employs them, or work for a specialist organisation that writes bids for other people. Bid writers may also be called tender writers, proposal writers or technical writers.
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Work activities
As a bid writer, you would typically:
- be briefed on the likely business opportunity
- undertake research about the industry or service you’ll be writing the bid for
- work closely with other sales, marketing or business development personnel to scope the bid document
- prepare answers to pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs)
- follow any designated rules for writing the bid
- design, write, edit and check bid documents
- use text and graphics to express technical information in easy-to-understand ways
- keep accurate records and save material to a ‘bid library’ for future use
- submit bids by the required deadlines.
Bid writers work for a wide range of industries and services, from construction to healthcare.
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Key skills and interests
To become a bid writer, you would need:
- excellent research, writing and checking skills, with close attention to detail
- good ability with IT packages
- enthusiasm and confidence to win business from clients
- the ability to get on with all kinds of people
- knowledge of some specialist markets
- the ability to use initiative and also work across different teams.
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Working hours and conditions
Working Hours
You would usually work standard office hours Monday to Friday, although you may need to work longer hours to meet deadlines or to visit clients.
Conditions
Bid writers work for a wide range of industries and services, from construction to healthcare. Travel to site meetings is often required and you may need a drivers’ licence and use of a vehicle.
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How to become an Bid Writer?
Entry Level Education
To become a bid writer you usually have to complete a degree with a major in journalism and have relevant experience in a particular industry or field. You can also become a bid writer by completing a degree with a major in your chosen field followed by a postgraduate qualification in writing, editing or journalism.
To get into the degree courses you usually need to gain your senior secondary school certificate or equivalent with good results in English. Entry to postgraduate courses usually requires completion of an appropriate bachelor degree.
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Job outlook
Employment of technical writers, including bid and proposal writers, is projected to grow slightly faster than the average for all occupations.
Professional, scientific, and technical services firms will continue to grow and should be a good source of new jobs, alongside bid writing roles in other industries such as IT services, engineering and construction.
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