Here you are, striving away day after day dealing with a relentless stream of complex and demanding bids. There have been countless evenings and nights when you have been working alone in the office to meet a bid deadline. And then, when you have had company, it was because it was “all hands to the deck” to overcome the crisis (not caused by you) of a strategically important bid not being on track to be completed on time. When the bid was won, little of the credit was given to you as it was the sales team’s success. Your reward was stale coffee, cold pizza and yet another bid to complete.
There is an antidote available for this situation. You will probably be aware of the Bid Solutions Salary surveys. They show that bid professionals who have achieved professional recognition through formally recognised programs earn significantly more than their unaccredited peers who are doing the same job.
The reasons for this are multifaceted; selection of applicants with an externally tested and recognised qualification reduces the hiring risk for a business and the hiring decision maker. A “standard” methodology and basis upon which people develop their bids, leads to less ambiguity and lower error rates in the activities which need to come together when a bid is developed. However, probably most importantly, companies pay more for people who contribute more. People who have got the qualifications have demonstrated their ability to contribute and higher contribution leads to higher reward.
If this is not enough to convince you to put aside a chunk of time to get your APMP Foundation examination under your belt (or to progress to the next level), we have an even more compelling argument. We recently ran a short survey of the people who had been through our Foundation training courses. We wanted to know what impact the training, and its preparation which they had had to do, had made to their daily working life. The results were instructive.
Over a quarter of our alumni responded. What they reported was highly encouraging and when we analysed the detail we found:
- 94% reported that they had found the information they picked up on the Foundation course assisted them in the way they did their job.
- 54% reported that gaining the qualification helped boost their status within their organisation.
and
- 13% reported that the qualification had directly helped them earn a promotion or (for freelancers) win a new contract.
So next time you are feeling overworked and undervalued, you might want to reflect upon how your status might be affected by gaining a suitable level of professional recognition. And, if you already have recognition but it is not affecting the way you are treated in your current job, just remember that it will be so much easier to move somewhere else where your talents will be more appreciated (and paid for!).
Otherwise, there is still that cold pizza to look forward to?
This article was written by Andrew Haigh.
