REAL STORIES SHARED BY OUR READERS
* Names have been changed
A CONCERNED mother of a final-year school student has described the bid management career pathway as being ‘ambiguous’, and that she feels the school system has failed to help her daughter transition successfully toward her chosen vocation by ‘leaving it to chance’.
Talking exclusively to Bidhive, the lady who identified herself only as Karen explained, “Ever since my daughter was knee high to a grasshopper all she wanted to be was a Bid Manager.”
“My daughter tackles everyday life with a sense of urgency with high expectations for superior performance, so not having a clear plan to plot her future has been a source of anxiety for her. She’s taken to keeping a spreadsheet to compare and evaluate career options, and she’s identified bid management jobs as aligning to her personal attributes and values of being ”results driven”, “influential”, ”committed to high quality”, ”deadline focused” and ”thriving in a high pressure, fast-paced environment”.
But Karen believes the career pathway to bid management starts too late and companies are missing key opportunities to get new talent early as as all the signs are there from early childhood.
“Group assignments and debating teams in the school system provide a brilliant training ground for bid management and I believe this is where companies can find potential hires and natural leaders,” she said.
“They ghost-write others’ work, they can frame and deliver a great argument…they submit early, and they never take the credit for the full marks. It’s as obvious as Jimmy Fallon’s fake laugh”.
According to the latest research, 99% of Bid Managers ‘fall’ or ‘land’ in the role, usually after being identified as the person most willing to sacrifice their own personal happiness for the sake of creating long-term work stability for their colleagues.
The long-tail study found that Bid Managers share a unique career imprint which combines a multitude of performance dimensions and a Completer / Finisher personality type, making them the logical choice for a leadership role that is also the detail-driven dotter of every i and crosser of every t.
“If you want my opinion, I believe Bid Managers aren’t created from holding a prestigious apprenticeship as a CV compiler,” explained Karen.
“Lady Gaga totally hit the nail on the head…they were born that way. These introverts who walk around with an air of calmness about them are hiding behind a cloak of adrenalin-fueled competitiveness that is just waiting to be channeled.
“There’s always a bid somewhere in the world. She’ll never have a day out of work being a bid manager. Sceptics might interpreta that as never having a day off work, but anyone who works in the profession knows they love chasing a deadline like a dog chases a ball. It’s made for those with hyper-fixation tendencies, and until it’s realised that these kids have high mastery orientation I guess we have to let them take the chequered path – whether that be engineering, marketing, or as project manager, they’ll eventually find their way. It might be via the long road or high road, but the universe will ultimately lead these ball jugglers to the same place.”
