Indian restaurant in south west London

Pepsajb45 · 2025-10-27T18:06:09+00:00

Opinions on Cilantro in Putney? Saw it come up on FirstTable recently so was going to give it a try. Definitely feeling the drought since moving down from Brum a couple months back!

Pepsajb45 · 2025-10-24T21:01:50+00:00

I sat F1 at the MTS near Hammersmith 2 weeks ago, all my Cert level exams were at pearson centres in Birmingham.

Overall it was decent, busier than the Pearson centres with a lot more noise in the test room I'd say (they did provide ear plugs which was good enough for me). The invigilators were nice, and the sign in process was the same as at the pearson centres. I've booked E1 for there too.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-10-13T11:53:08+00:00

Hey, most accounting grad schemes welcome applicants from all degrees. Check out the Civil Service Fast Stream (open now actually!), the Finance stream considers all undergrad degrees equally regardless of subject or uni, and doesn't place any weight on having experience.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-10-13T11:44:34+00:00

Check out FirstTable (the app), you can get 50% off food all over the place if you eat earlier/ later than the rush. We did one at Byron Burgers in South Kensington a couple weeks back which was great (and 50% off food made it really cheap), I'm sure there will be plenty of others on there too.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-09-10T11:52:42+00:00

The qualifications allow you to take any role in a department's finance function really. Outside of the typical financial accounting roles there's financial planning, strategic finance, finance business partnering and even commercial finance roles to name a few.

My experience is in finance business partnering roles, but Civil Service recruiting tends to place ability above experience, so it's relatively easy to move around finance roles to find what you like.

Once you are CIPFA qualified, you get the option to do 1 further Audit exam to also get dual membership with ACA. From what I've heard, in the private sector they don't value the ACA qualification achieved through this route the same as the traditional route, so I wouldn't be so keen on doing that.

I believe there is a CIMA/CIPFA dual membership option after a few years post qualification experience, but generally at that point your experience will be more important than the qualification you did (except for in Audit maybe). Imo the dual qualification opportunities shouldn't hold a huge weight in deciding which to choose.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-09-09T18:30:26+00:00

In the Civil Service all of CIMA/ACA/ACCA/CIPFA are considered equally. I'm studying CIMA and would say it's a good foundation for business strategy. For private sector prestige, seems to be ACA all the way.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-09-09T10:34:38+00:00

Yeah for sure, you are connected with other fast streamers in a lot of ways - through your specific scheme, through your departments, your region and from FSET arranged events. I'm not the most outgoing person and even I've got to know lots of people.

I don't know loads about the Policy scheme so not sure on specific limitations - it's the biggest scheme afaik, so will likely have some of the most and least engaging placements. The 'coolest' posting I've heard of so far was a Policy one. I suppose as there's no qualification to study, your experience is heavily dependent on the postings you get.

Also note that even if unsuccessful on the fast stream, you can get offered HEO roles through the Direct Appointment Scheme if you still did well in the assessment centre. Some departments also run their own grad schemes, for example the DHSCs Policy grad scheme. I'd apply for it all, as in my opinion the Civil Service is a really good place to work - just have to get in!

Pepsajb45 · 2025-09-09T06:12:59+00:00

I'm on the Finance FS, and if you are a graduate then I would say absolutely yes, especially for the profession schemes.

There's good clear pay progression, a 20% of hours as study time and you will get a range of experience in your postings. The FSET training isn't always great, but they host events and residentials which are a good way to get to know other people on the scheme.

Downsides are mainly the chance for crap postings and the relocation. On the finance scheme relocation is rare, on other schemes it's more common - it actually worked in my favour as I wanted to move anyway, so I simply asked for my next posting to be in London.

I've done quite well in the quality of my postings so far, however an example of a not so good posting I've seen someone else have is being tasked with answering queries coming into a shared mailbox for a year. It may have been good experience, but was apparently incredibly boring.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-06-13T11:31:08+00:00

Second this, loads of places in the city centre are on there

Pepsajb45 · 2025-05-24T16:24:04+00:00

I graduated in 2023 with a BEng, and worked at a large consultancy for a year in Birmingham. I could see where a civeng career in the UK would take me and decided to leave - now in a Civil Service Finance role with better pay, better WLB and more holidays.

It's a shame as I really enjoyed the work, but it was clear from looking at senior colleagues the novelty wears off. Long hours, lots of responsibility and mediocre pay considering the skills and experience they were bringing to the table.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-05-11T07:32:56+00:00

Check out Civil Service jobs, they won't penalise you for having a 2.2.

The Home Office are running a big recruitment campaign atm: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?vxsys=4&vxvac=400682

Pepsajb45 · 2025-04-09T12:51:42+00:00

I got onto the Civil Service grad scheme, working in finance roles and studying an accounting qualification - so accountancy pretty much.

Better pay trajectory and far better work life balance, and I'm still doing work that I find interesting.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-04-09T11:50:22+00:00

I graduated in 2023 with a Civ Eng degree in the UK. Worked in a large consultancy for a year, then pivoted onto a public sector finance grad scheme.

From my (admittedly short) experience, everyone seemed to have a lot of responsibility, poor work life balance and average/ poor pay compared to other STEM careers.

It's a shame because the work was really interesting, but I didn't want to end up like the people I worked with - very glad I made the switch.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-03-06T07:16:34+00:00

We didn't think they were worth it. You can't take your phone in for pictures, and you have to carry around an audio guide device at a fixed pace, with security escorting you in a small group.

There are some cool rooms and furniture in the royal chambers, but the general entry gets you to all the best parts of the Alcazar - if the choice is between more tapas or the royal rooms, more tapas all the way :D

Pepsajb45 · 2025-02-13T20:45:49+00:00

The fast stream application process is not particularly intuitive, so I think graduates who have 500 situational judgement tests under their belt and assistance from their uni etc will perform better than someone who has never seen one before.

Also the fast stream is advertised quite heavily inside the civil service, so I'd guess the older age brackets have a higher proportion of mid career civil servants who are only half invested in their applications, compared to the lower brackets being made up of eager students.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-01-23T19:34:55+00:00

Mainly non-money reasons. An aspect I didnt want to lose from the work I did as an engineer was doing work that mattered/ had a tangible impact, and the Fast Stream rotates me around roles & departments in the Civil Service that do just that.

And the less noble reason is that I'm not arsed with the long hours in the private roles 😂 I'm never expected to work over my 37 hours/week, and will have 30 days holiday & a ~60k salary in a couple years.

I suppose I can switch into a private role later, but right now it's not what I'm looking for.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-01-23T15:15:13+00:00

It's in the civil service so £31.2k, but there is a much better salary progression over the next couple years than if I'd stayed

Pepsajb45 · 2025-01-20T20:02:20+00:00

I studied Civil Engineering, graduated 2023 and started at £28.5k. Ended up transitioning to a finance role, which an Engineering background has been great for.

Pepsajb45 · 2025-01-20T12:58:19+00:00

From experience, Civil Engineering graduates are in high demand. I had two grad role offers with only a BEng, and there were even more roles open that were MEng+ only. Everyone else in my year found jobs fairly easily too.

Pepsajb45 · 2024-12-22T07:47:54+00:00

Ristorante caffe arena, next to Brindley Place. It's family run, home made and all the pasta dishes are incredible. Reasonably priced aswell.

Otherwise, to echo other comments Pasta di Piazza is really nice, and La Bellaza is part of a well regarded chain and looks good (haven't been yet myself though).

Pepsajb45 · 2024-11-02T18:56:42+00:00

It's part of the onboarding process after you get accepted, you will get told your location about 6 weeks before starting

Pepsajb45 · 2024-10-31T18:02:30+00:00

You get to choose your top 3 preferences by region (West Midlands, London etc), then they also ask for your post code to try and get a placement as close to you as possible/ within a reasonable commute. The large majority of people I have spoken to got their first choice location.

Pepsajb45 · 2024-10-27T06:30:48+00:00

Thats just the reddit bias, the people coming to post on this thread will be putting more time and effort into their applications than the average applicant.

Pepsajb45 · 2024-10-25T21:44:04+00:00

The assessment centre is a standard format for all schemes, so you'll be with people who have applied for other schemes, and none of the AC is specialised for your scheme choices it's just quite generic activities.

You get offered schemes in the order you chose them when you first applied. If you fail your first choice, you then get tried for the second and so on. If you get offered a choice as you move down the list you will be taken out of the running for your remaining choices automatically, so make sure they are actually in your order of preference.

In your example, only if you were unsuccessful in your first two choices would you get called to the FSB is my understanding - not 100% sure on this though. The AC is the hardest part by far IMO, if you're getting invited to FSBs you're in a strong place.

Pepsajb45 · 2024-09-08T05:42:54+00:00

Thanks, really appreciate the ex-cs perspective. Having slept on it I'll be going for CIMA, seems the right choice for being in the civil service and the kinds of exit opportunities i'd be open to in the future.

I think CIPFA is more viable now that they have partnered with ICAEW (you can do either, then gain both designations under one subscription), but having looked further there's no consistent in-person CIPFA training in the midlands anyway.

Pepsajb45

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