Resume for gaining business 1

[milkshakelake]

A government agency has requested resumes from me and my business partner (specifically New York State). We own a 4 person structural engineering firm. How do I make a resume for the purposes of getting business?

There are tons of resources for job resumes, but I couldn't find anything for a business owner trying to get projects. I have done hundreds of projects big and small, and at least 200 in my own firm. Should I just list every single project bigger than a small inspection and a few words of description (i.e. new 8 story steel, inspection of warehouse, etc.)? It will be a 4-5 page resume. Also, I worked on all of them together with my business partner, so I was thinking of copying and pasting my list of projects.

I'm not sure how deeply they'll review. But a 4-5 page wall of text of projects should be impressive at face value.

 

[phamENG]

This is what I've seen and not what I've done (though plan to eventually):

Personnel Resumes: include description of work history (how long total, how long with current firm), educational background, authorship/research, explanation of areas of specialty, key 4 or 5 projects (max) that this person has been in charge of. Generally limited to one page.

Firm Resume: Listing of projects. For your firm size, probably not every project. Put yourself in the shoes of the government functionary who has to go through these proposals. You give them a 5 page list, they may look at the first page. You give them two pages of well thought out descriptions, they might read the whole thing. Tailor it to the situation. What's the contract for? Are you designing wooden foot bridges? Then don't talk about your steel and concrete mid-rise experience. Pick out the projects that are similar to and/or show your qualifications for the work in question and rank them from best (the one that makes you shine the brightest) to the worst (smallest, least applicable, etc.), and put them on your resume in that order.

EDIT: If you're teaming up with somebody, be sure to throw in a handful of projects you've worked on with them in the past. Showing that the team works well together can give you a good boost.

Whatever happens, pay attention to page limits. Some RFPs have total count limits, some limit individual sections. Give them a 5 page resume when they asked for 2, and your whole package may be thrown out.

 

[IRstuff]

They often truncate your pages at the page limit, so critical items might get lost if they were on the lopped off pages.

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[milkshakelake]

@phamENG: Thanks for the advice. There is no explicit page limit but 2 pages seems pretty reasonable. I'll definitely tailor it to what they're looking for and make a nice 2 page summary instead of a wall of text, and leave out things unrelated to the RFP.

@IRstuff: There's no stated page limit but based on a different answer, I think 2 pages is reasonable. I'll put all the important stuff in the beginning anyway.

 

[IRstuff]

Pay special attention to the proposal/past history scoring criteria; your resumes need to check the boxes they care about. That won't ensure a win, but it'll ensure you don't get kicked out for insufficient qualifications.

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[milkshakelake]

@IRstuff: Got it. I'll be sure to tailor it to the specific project, at least so it doesn't get rejected.

 

[skeletron]

I have a standard first page (education, experience, professional registration). On the second page I tailor it to the application. Typically I have a summary of qualifications paragraph, some resources I have available (or how I complete the work), and then I list as many projects that pertain to the application. I keep it at 2 pages.

 

[glass99]

When we used to do resumes for the NYCDOT and NYSDOT at my old firm, they were quite long for senior staff (maybe 10 pages). They included a 1/4 page project description for each project they have worked on. They were very different from the kind of resume you submit when you are applying for a job. The first page was a summary and credentials, and the later pages were project descriptions. The government likes paper.

 

[milkshakelake]

@skeletron Thanks, that seems like a good format.

@glass99 Everyone else said to keep it around 2 pages. I guess NYC and NYS is different.