Hi, my name is PS, Terrible PS. (The James Bond of Terrible)
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:46 am
The comments regarding the school name contained herein will summarily be ignored. Yes my current score (170) is laughable for that school, but there is still December and as long as there is hope, the name will remain the same!!
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In September 2008, I was sitting in a conference room at National Audit Office of Norway, invited as the sole representative of Turkey, to make a presentation about the current status of Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Project in Turkey. Previous attendees warned me that conference had been boring, but I knew that was only because they were inadequately prepared and blamed that on our limited legal framework of audit. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, in close collaboration with Ministry of Defense, I prepared a presentation detailing the robust decision making process allowing Turkey to be one of the few countries to have finalized the decision to procure the aircraft along with the USA and the UK. Presentation pleasantly surprised my colleagues, accustomed to the Turkish representative staying silent and generally not contributing, citing legal framework issues.
That meeting and the subsequent one in London were highlights of my career, however, instead of reinforcing my job satisfaction, after seeing the audit approaches available to my peers in other countries, these meetings only served to underline the implied legal framework issues. The new Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) Law, after waiting its turn in the Parliament for the last five years, found itself a place in the agenda last week. Partly due to lacking internalization of the need for accountability, instead of ameliorating our problems, with a last second amendment TCA’s performance audit (value for money) mandate was removed from the law, creating further complications and a contradiction with international standards. Meanwhile, the law as a whole manages to preserve most of the outdated parts of the existing regulations.
My job closely parallels practice of law, in the sense of determining facts and which laws and regulations apply to the specific case and in the event of a conflict between regulations, understanding the essence of the law, intention of the legislature and finally, preparing the report to be tried in Chambers of TCA. I enjoy my job, I enjoy practicing in the general area of law and I precisely chose this career since it is the closest I could get to a law career with my major, however; I cannot plot my future clearly working for a government that can alter the mandate of a constitutional institution in such a drastic manner seemingly on a whim. Thus, I want to continue in private sector, where one’s future largely depends on one’s performance but this switch is close to impossible in Turkey, since practicing law in private sector requires a law degree, which is obtained at the undergraduate level and going back to undergraduate feels counterintuitive at my age.
I want my job to be closely related to corporations and to my major of Business Administration, specifically financial and the analytical aspects that I really enjoyed. Thus, after making the switch to private sector, I plan working in Corporate Law area, and due to myriad options presented to students, the excellent idea of programs of study, specifically “Law and Business” and my inexplicable feeling that the emphasis on bringing together a diverse student body is stronger at Harvard than its peers, I feel Harvard Law School would be perfect for me, which is one of the reasons why I am applying only to Harvard Law School.
I am fully aware of the challenges ahead, from the law school education to braving the legal market in this economy as a foreign national; but motivated by the need for a change and the need for bringing about that change while it is still possible; especially since I have not been so lucky as to be truly challenged so far during my education or my career and thus this would indeed be a very welcome change.
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In September 2008, I was sitting in a conference room at National Audit Office of Norway, invited as the sole representative of Turkey, to make a presentation about the current status of Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Project in Turkey. Previous attendees warned me that conference had been boring, but I knew that was only because they were inadequately prepared and blamed that on our limited legal framework of audit. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, in close collaboration with Ministry of Defense, I prepared a presentation detailing the robust decision making process allowing Turkey to be one of the few countries to have finalized the decision to procure the aircraft along with the USA and the UK. Presentation pleasantly surprised my colleagues, accustomed to the Turkish representative staying silent and generally not contributing, citing legal framework issues.
That meeting and the subsequent one in London were highlights of my career, however, instead of reinforcing my job satisfaction, after seeing the audit approaches available to my peers in other countries, these meetings only served to underline the implied legal framework issues. The new Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) Law, after waiting its turn in the Parliament for the last five years, found itself a place in the agenda last week. Partly due to lacking internalization of the need for accountability, instead of ameliorating our problems, with a last second amendment TCA’s performance audit (value for money) mandate was removed from the law, creating further complications and a contradiction with international standards. Meanwhile, the law as a whole manages to preserve most of the outdated parts of the existing regulations.
My job closely parallels practice of law, in the sense of determining facts and which laws and regulations apply to the specific case and in the event of a conflict between regulations, understanding the essence of the law, intention of the legislature and finally, preparing the report to be tried in Chambers of TCA. I enjoy my job, I enjoy practicing in the general area of law and I precisely chose this career since it is the closest I could get to a law career with my major, however; I cannot plot my future clearly working for a government that can alter the mandate of a constitutional institution in such a drastic manner seemingly on a whim. Thus, I want to continue in private sector, where one’s future largely depends on one’s performance but this switch is close to impossible in Turkey, since practicing law in private sector requires a law degree, which is obtained at the undergraduate level and going back to undergraduate feels counterintuitive at my age.
I want my job to be closely related to corporations and to my major of Business Administration, specifically financial and the analytical aspects that I really enjoyed. Thus, after making the switch to private sector, I plan working in Corporate Law area, and due to myriad options presented to students, the excellent idea of programs of study, specifically “Law and Business” and my inexplicable feeling that the emphasis on bringing together a diverse student body is stronger at Harvard than its peers, I feel Harvard Law School would be perfect for me, which is one of the reasons why I am applying only to Harvard Law School.
I am fully aware of the challenges ahead, from the law school education to braving the legal market in this economy as a foreign national; but motivated by the need for a change and the need for bringing about that change while it is still possible; especially since I have not been so lucky as to be truly challenged so far during my education or my career and thus this would indeed be a very welcome change.
As for applying only to Harvard, it does have a very good reason and hopefully I will be able to pull it off with my December score, we will see in any case, all I need is a non-auto-ding PS.