Why Design Managers Make Good Bid Managers?
11 Sep 2019
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Why Design Managers Make Good Bid Managers?
There are lots of next steps a Design Manager can take in terms of progressing their career, more common paths include running your own Design Management team, focussing on a specialism such as BIM or moving into Bid Management.
In this blog we explore further what experience and attributes are required from a Design Manager to progress into a Bid Manager role.
Why Bid Manager Career Path?
The Bid Management route is often a good avenue of progression for a Design Manager, especially if they find current opportunity to run their own design management team limited.
From Bid Manager there is also further opportunity for progression to preconstruction manager and preconstruction director. So a great opportunity if you want to progress the career ladder and be in a role that can make a real difference to a company’s success.
Not only that it can also open future doors to work client / developer side.
Why Design Managers make good Bid Managers?
The Bid Manager role is basically a “Preconstruction Project Manager”, bringing a team together to submit and win a bid.
Similarly a lot of a Design Managers role includes project management skills, having a good eye for detail and liaising with various parties across a wide variety of construction packages and stages. “Getting the right people, to do the right thing, at the right time”.
Design Managers also have to liaise with various departments including Commercial, Operations, External consultants and Sub-Contractors and will often already have exposure to working with the preconstruction team.
So in most cases design managers will already have good experience from doing preconstruction design management duties and will often possess the team management skills to bring a preconstruction / bid team together, making them ideal candidates for progression into Bid Manager roles.
However an area of weakness Design Managers can fall short on is in commercial and programme awareness and so a Design Manager seeking this career path should look to strengthen their experience in these fields where possible.
That said it should not put a Design Manager off and be kept in mind that if a Bid Manager is a “Preconstruction Project Manager” then with good project / team manager skills a bid manager should be able to liaise with the commercial, planning and estimating team to utilise them in their own areas of weakness.
Summary of Design Manager Experience & Traits that make good Bid Managers:
-Significant experience working at tender / preconstruction design management stage
-Wide variety of project sector experience.
-Strong technical knowledge, ideally across a wide variety of project packages.
-Good leadership and people skills.
-A flair for client facing
-Strong communication and literature skills to help compose attractive bids.
-Good risk awareness, a difficult balance between creating a competitive bid and also minimising financial risk on a project.
-Commercial and project programme awareness.
-Good eye for value engineering and finding opportunities
-Highly motivated and competitive nature
-Good track record for working under pressure and meeting deadlines.
-Thick skinned, as it can be very disheartening when a bid is lost after a lot of cost and effort.
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We would be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic and any further examples of why Design Managers can make good Bid Managers, or perhaps other experiences / traits you feel Design Managers need to be successful in stepping up to this role or even pitfalls they should be aware of that will help aspiring Design Managers and Design Coordinators considering this career path.
So please feel free to like our post and share your comments.
Want to learn more about us at Talk Recruitment Ltd?
Talk Recruitment Ltd is a specialist recruiter of Design Managers and Design Coordinators, as well as Bid Managers / Preconstruction staff UK-Wide and would be delighted to assist you with your job search or in finding your next Design Manager / Bid Manager recruit.
For more career advice or to apply for vacancies contact Talk Recruitment Ltd on 0121 748 1433 to discuss further.
Alternatively feel free to register your CV with us for upcoming Design Manager and Bid Manager jobs.
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