Four days to a framework deadline and the CVs are out of date
A public sector framework opens for structural and civil engineering. It wants CVs for key staff, in a set template with a word limit, and relevant project examples with values, dates, services and outcomes. Your bid coordinator finds the CVs from the last bid, eighteen months old. Two engineers have been promoted since. One has left. The project sheets describe jobs that were live then and have finished since.
Engineers are pulled off design work to update their CVs, each in their own style, and the coordinator reformats everything to fit the template.
Why bid material is always stale
- CVs are Word documents owned by nobody, updated only when a bid demands it.
- Project experience is not recorded when a job finishes.
- Each bid template differs in layout, word limits and what it emphasises.
- Project data such as values, dates and services is scattered across fee proposals and accounts.
- Tailoring for each bid is done by hand, under deadline pressure.
Framework bids make it harder. They often ask for the same person described in different ways: a CV in one template, a role description in another, a paragraph on relevant experience in a portal text box. Each version is written separately, and they rarely agree with each other.
What stale bid material costs
| Issue | Effect |
|---|---|
| Engineers pulled from design work | Fee burn on live projects |
| Generic CVs submitted | Weaker scores on relevant experience |
| Rushed project sheets | Inaccuracies in values and dates |
| Bids declined for lack of time | Missed opportunities |
How we build bid content from one source
- A staff experience record holds each engineer's qualifications, memberships, roles and projects, starting from existing CVs, which we parse and you check.
- Completed projects are recorded with facts drawn from your project and accounts data: client, value, dates, services, disciplines and team.
- When a project closes, the project lead is prompted to add a short description and the people involved.
- For a bid, the coordinator picks the template, word limits and the experience the bid emphasises.
- The tool assembles draft CVs and project sheets from the records, with a language model tailoring wording to the bid's emphasis. Every fact comes from your records, not from the model.
- The coordinator and engineers edit the drafts, and approved text is saved for reuse.
- Outputs are produced in the bid's format, Word or the portal's structure.
Honesty matters here: the tool only draws on experience that is recorded. It will not invent a project or inflate a role, and anything not in the record is flagged rather than filled in.
We usually start with the CVs and project sheets from your most recent bid, since they are the freshest. The first run through a real bid template shows where the records need more detail, and the project close-out prompt makes sure new work is added from then on.
Bid week, afterwards
The coordinator produces a first draft of all CVs and project sheets in an afternoon and spends the rest of the time on quality. Engineers check their own CV rather than writing it.
Because projects are recorded at close, the practice's most recent work is always available for the next bid.
Does bid season look like this for you?
- CVs are updated only when a bid arrives.
- Engineers stop design work to rewrite CVs.
- Project sheets describe old jobs because new ones were never written up.
- Each bid is reformatted by hand.
- You have skipped bids because there was no time to prepare.