Construction Law and Contract Administration (P.Grad.Dip.) postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

On the wall of our site cabin there is a printed drawing register, and part of my job is keeping it honest. When a revised drawing arrives, I record the new revision letter, stamp the old copy as superseded and make sure the foreman has the current version before anyone sets out a wall. It sounds clerical, and much of it is. But after two years as a site administrator for a housing contractor building terraced homes, I have come to see that the register is also a record of who asked for what, and when. That question, more than any other, is what draws me to construction law and contract administration.

My degree in Architectural Technology gave me a practical grounding in how buildings are detailed and assembled, and a shorter but useful introduction to procurement and building regulations. For my final-year dissertation I interviewed five small builders about how they handled changes on domestic extensions. Most agreed variations verbally with homeowners and settled the price at the end, and three described final-account disagreements that grew out of nothing more than different memories of a conversation on site. None of them was careless; they simply had no habit of writing changes down. I suggested a one-page variation sheet that a builder could complete and have signed on the day, and two of the builders told me afterwards they had started using a version of it. The project was modest, but it taught me to listen carefully to people describing a dispute from their own side.

At work I see the same issues on a larger scale and under a formal contract. I prepare the weekly progress report, log deliveries, and file site instructions and correspondence. Last winter, a late design change to a set of retaining walls coincided with a fortnight of heavy rain. Our contracts manager prepared a notice seeking an extension of time, and I was asked to assemble the supporting records: the instruction, the revised drawings and their dates of issue, delivery notes and the daily diaries. I was not making any decisions, but compiling that file showed me why notice provisions and contemporaneous records matter, and how hard it is to separate the effect of one cause of delay from another. It also prompted my reading. I have been working through the standard forms used in Ireland, and I found it striking to learn about the prevention principle, under which an employer who causes delay cannot insist on the original completion date unless the contract allows time to be extended. I want to understand these principles properly rather than picking up fragments in the cabin.

Outside work, I have been treasurer of my local rowing club for three years. I keep the accounts, chase membership fees and prepared the paperwork when we replaced the boathouse roof, which meant comparing three quotations and checking what each included. It is ordinary volunteering, but it has made me careful with figures and comfortable asking awkward questions politely. I also restore old bicycles in my spare time, mostly frames found at markets, which suits my liking for working methodically through a problem until it is solved.

I am applying for postgraduate study because I want to move from recording events to understanding their contractual consequences. I would like to build a secure knowledge of contract formation, payment, delay and disruption, and of how disputes are resolved through adjudication, conciliation, arbitration and the courts. In the longer term I hope to work in contract administration or as a claims consultant, where both technical understanding and legal knowledge are needed. I bring a working knowledge of how sites run, good organisational habits and an interest in how small misunderstandings grow into large ones. I would now like the legal training to match.