Imagine having all of the interesting bits of an Expert Witness or Construction Law job, but without the weekly 3000 word essay or the adversarial stuff.
It can be hard to find your place again if you’re thinking about coming back into Architecture from a legal or consulting position.
You could be worried about fitting in, re-learning the trade, mad deadlines, touchy clients or the usual lack of progression that comes with being a Project Architect.
But you wouldn’t have to worry about any of that if you worked in this job.
You’d work somewhere that puts lifestyle first for once. It’s short hours, there’s no overtime, the flexibility is there. As is a significant annual bonus, the first £4k of which is tax free.
It’d be an ideal place to get back in touch with what’s happening in the real world of Architecture, while keeping the day to day project grind at arms length.
You would stay in legal / advisory, but also be close to the changing regulations, technical projects and design orientated day to day work.
Even though you’d be working for an Architectural practice you’d still get up to 32.5 days of holiday, and can buy 5 more days immediately. You can enjoy paid for Dental, eye care, private GPs, have enhanced maternity and paternity leave, an enhanced pension scheme; you know all the stuff normal Architects don’t get.
It’s even up to you how often you come into your local studio(s). It could be three times a week, once a week, once every few weeks, or full time.
In 2 years you’d easily be promoted and you’re the ideal person to take over the legal department in the longer term.
All of the good bits of the legal / advisory / witness world, and all of the good bits of being an Architect again.
The Job…
… can be broken down into 3 areas.
First you’re the go between, for the legal department with the architects, and for the architects with the legal department (all in house). Where the operational and legal ends, you begin, and join the two. It’s quite a social part of the job. A friendly voice to each party.
Second, you’re an in-house consultant who advises on legal and technical risk. There’s an element of QA, as well as Technical and Design support in key areas, without remotely being a day to day project lead. You’ll be spread across lots of projects and departments where you’ll have a small, manageable amount of input where needed.
Third, you’ll spend time on improving processes, practices and systems. You’ll do a bit of contractual stuff based around scope of services, and don’t worry you don’t already need to be an out and out expert.
All things that fall between the cracks of legal and operational.
What you’ll need:
- You’ll need to be a qualified Architectural professional (that could mean you’re a qualified Architect or Technologist)
- Experience working as an expert witness, in the forensic architecture world, or another legal position within the construction industry.
- You’d probably need to be able to go in and out of revit models sometimes to see what’s what, though you wouldn’t be the ‘do-er’ as this isn’t a hands-on job that requires you to model.
(Based anywhere in the UK)
Don’t have a CV? Don’t worry. Send your old one or send Matt Kirk your LinkedIn profile. Message Matt Kirk on LinkedIn for more information.