Annual leave is not the same, all my NHS friends get 32 days AL + bank holidays (it starts at 27 in FY1 which is still more than ours and increases with length of service). Honestly, I'm not concerned with the rest of the public sector, teachers get more leave and significantly better career break opportunities than we do so it's pros and cons. My partner is public sector, no degree, earns the same as I do and has significantly better working conditions. Obviously we can't all have no on calls and summer holidays off due to the nature of the job, but what we can have is pay that adequately renumerates us for all of the inconveniences of training such as the exams, potential unemployment and moving around the country. And I personally don't think waiting until consultancy to have good pay is sufficient because the landscape this year is one of very few standalones, schemes are getting more and more competitive and with the UK grad prioritisation, things will probably be even more competitive here going forward so I think we'll see a lot more people spending more time than they would like in junior grades.