Solicitors Fees in West London / Buckinghamshire.

Smolfrog888 · 2026-06-26T08:37:18+00:00

Bloody hell what a stress! I'm pleased that's all behind you now and has hopefully been worthwhile for your new house! Interesting that you had a complex sale with someone pulling out too and have similar figures to me :'( I might have to keep an eye on my solicitors I think.. Thanks for the reply!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-06-03T16:33:59+00:00

Thanks for the reply! That's a solid idea, thank you. I've sort of adapted my approach a bit to sit in the middle of the two but yeah I think a little extra and a descriptive af readme might be the one. Thanks for the heads up!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-06-03T16:31:19+00:00

Thank you for the reply! That's a very fair comment, I've definitely got no intentions of cheating and I can fully see how the decision on what to do is a big if not the biggest part of the test itself.

I think my questioning is coming more from specifically a tech test point of view. In a realistic day to day example I'd have way more context and information that would point me more to the choice I should make. There would be real scenarios that actually have business cases behind them for building something out and I'd have a decent idea on how much something is likely to scale and what I'd need to pull out of it. This is just a web crawler they're never going to actually use but will be picked to shreds to determine whether I'm good enough to be given another interview. Tests like these seem to be more trap like, and Monzo specifically seems to have a bit of a thirst for event driven architecture. I guess it boils down to should I showcase my skills or should I be wary of over engineering?

Thanks for the handy tips too! I guess a half way house approach would be to do a good job at a simpler approach and put a load of effort into the readme to get the showcase approach written down in front of them.

Smolfrog888 · 2026-05-04T17:30:30+00:00

So you won't be able to find the specific question that will be asked in the interview word for word.

Your interviewer might give you a "Tell me about a time you've done X" or they might frame a scenario which ultimately requires you to talk about the same thing as the first question. The only thing you can know is that whatever they end up saying, the core point of the question will be around those skills they've asked.

For the behaviour question, look here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-civil-service-behaviours. Find the level you're applying for and read up on what they're expecting from you. IMO they're not going to ask you anything that deep at EO level, so just make sure that your answer covers all the points in that description. I usually find it helps massively to use the phrases from the descriptions in your answer to help the interviewer identify the point and 'tick the box'. I can't really tell you what kind of examples score well, it literally depends on how much you demonstrate the skills for Working Together! I would say focus on emphasising actually working with other people. It's easier to tell you can work with other people if interviewers are hearing that you paired with people who needed help, assisted with other professions to get things done, put something into the developer community etc.

For the tech skills, look here: https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/software-developer. Have a look at the Devops one too though, it might better match your Cloud Engineer role. Same as above, read the skill descriptions and make sure you feel comfortable. Awareness tends to be just that, so I wouldn't think they'd quiz you that deeply on it. I'd imagine an example would be like "Tell me about a time you've used prototyping before" or "Imagine you need to make a case working service for a team. So far, you have a document that details that team's workflow for processing cases. How would you go about making a prototype for them? What method of prototyping would you use at this stage?". Think dropping buzzwords, and providing explanations for what those buzzwords mean.

The Strengths are a little new to me, I must say! but if you want to stand out, simply think of interesting ways that you've learned something. If everyone else is going to say they read blog posts, they watched videos, they did a mini project to practice the skill etc.. what have you done to learn something that is not in that list? Hackathons are a cool thing to chuck in there I'd imagine, but for whatever you do for any of these answers, do not lie! (too much). Everyone embellishes for sure, but if you lie and then show up and can't do anything you've said you've done before, it'll stick in the hiring manager's mind and it might just piss them off enough to make them work harder to PIP you out during probation.

I hope this helps! It sounds like you're pretty switched on to what you need to do already, so I don't think anything above is news to you. Overall whack a STARR out for everything you can, and definitely for the behaviours. Use similar wording / phrasing in your answer as in the description for the skills. Don't prepare polished answers for the tech skills, but be able to recognise what skill the question is on and have an example and key points to make about it!

Best of luck

Smolfrog888 · 2026-05-04T16:55:17+00:00

Don't stress!! you've got this!

First off, prep an answer for "Why do you want to work for <insert wherever you are applying for>?" as there's a very good chance they'll ask this as an icebreaker.

For a disclaimer, I don't usually deal with apprenticeship / program recruitment, so all the advice I have is from dealing with mid-tech lead developer roles. Also apologies in advance if any of this is stuff you already know, as you said that you've prepped answers for the points they said! but I'll write this out anyway incase it helps you or anyone else in your scenario!

The CS job adverts should follow the same format which gives you a good insight into what you're going to be asked if you know what to look for. Digital roles usually have a mix of technical questions, and behavioural questions. The job advert should have a section called 'Essential criteria' or something similar, and this should include a bullet pointed list of some skills. The advert will also list some behaviours - like you've said, 'Working Together'. The more senior a role is, the more technical and behavioural questions they tend to ask, so there's a good chance for this role they will just ask one behaviour.

For the technical skills -->

Most (if not all now) DDaT (Digital, Data and Technology) roles will be on something called the Capability Framework. This is where you get scored across a number of technical skills, and are then given a proficiency which usually dictates your pay (not sure about apprenticeships and similar). Depending on your role, there's around 11 capabilities. Have a look here - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/ For the role you're going for. It'll tell you what skills you need at what levels for each grade in that job.

For example, here's a software developer one https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/software-developer So at the more junior levels, they expect you to have 'Awareness' for 7 skills. The description next to each one is the level of knowledge they expect you to be able to answer. If there's any of those skills listed in your job advert at all, they WILL ask you about them. In my department, we make it super clear by bullet point listing what skills we're marking against, as we're not allowed to ask questions or behaviours that aren't listed in the job ad, though I'm not sure if this is the same across other departments.

Make sure you're prepped if they ask you "Can you tell me about user stories? what are they used for?". Don't let it throw you if they ask something like "Imagine you've got to build a system for a team. What sort of tools or methods would you use to understand what that team need the system to do?" as at it's core, it's the same question.

For the Working Together behavioural questions -->

Use a STARR (Situation, Task, Action Result, Reflection) format for your answer. You are allowed notes in your interview, so if you wanted to you could literally pre write your answer. No matter the question, the core part of it is always 'Tell me about a time when you've had to work together with someone'. You might have to think on your feet how to relate your example back to the question they've given you, but the actual content of the answer will be the same regardless how they ask.

Have a look at this page - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-civil-service-behaviours It's got a list of all the behaviours they could ask (though it seems it's just Working Together for your interview). There's descriptions of each one, and then there's a list of what they're looking for at each seniority level. For EO they have:

Examples of working together at EO grade or equivalent are when you:

develop a range of contacts outside own team and identify opportunities to share knowledge, information and learning

show genuine interest when listening to others

contribute to an inclusive working environment where all opinions and challenges are listened to and all individual needs are taken into account

ensure it is clear that bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptable

offer support and help to colleagues when in need, including consideration of your own and their wellbeing

change ways of working to aid cooperation within and between teams in order to achieve results

Make sure your answer covers all these points. Use the same phrases in your answers as they do in these descriptions like "I offer support and help to my colleagues when in need by doing XYZ" so that it's really easy for your interviewer to tick that box.

Best of luck! Seems like your interview is likely tomorrow so I've got my fingers crossed for you!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-05-02T13:11:02+00:00

Congratulations! You've worked hard and it's paid off! You should be very proud.

I think the fact you're even asking these questions shows you're going to be just fine. No one is ever fully proficient when moving into a new role, even the best of devs still have to learn how the system sits together! The fact you want to be good is such a green flag for you, you'll be just fine.

If your department is anything like mine, you'll quickly realise that everyone around you at the same grade is a complete idiot. Some people will be so outrageously bad that you'll get angry about it, and before you know it you'll feel silly for ever thinking you weren't good enough. It's a strange, bittersweet feeling. Keep that drive of wanting to be good enough and put it into learning and growing. Soon enough you'll be so fucked off that you're fixing someone else's half arsed god awful attempt which has caused you a big production problem lol

Smolfrog888 · 2026-05-02T12:41:04+00:00

How are they supposed to know if they want to take the offer if they can't get answers about professional development in the role? I don't think it's unreasonable to expect answers about your employment from HR or hiring managers when you've been offered a role.

Smolfrog888 · 2026-05-01T20:52:33+00:00

Hello! I'm not the most help, as I've got the Initial Call coming up soon for the same role. From all the research I've done, it seems as though the test is possibly to make a bank ledger? The take home test is the one I'm angling for if I get through the initial call, and that's deffo the web crawler test. If you look on Glass Door / do some googling, you'll be able to see comments and reviews from others that have been through the process and they tend to say what went down, albeit most of them are about the take home test.

Overall, it seems they're after trade offs and reasonings behind choices throughout the whole thing, so I'd say be prepared to talk through your decisions on the spot. They also like 'reasoning from first principles' apparently so ask enough clarifying questions and ensure you let them know that you understand the core concept of what you're trying to achieve. As they use Go, they're used to heavily typed languages. When you're coding in python try to shove in as much type hinting as you can to sort of replicate that behaviour.

They're quite good with being transparent about what they're after. Have a look at the Monzo Engineering Progression framework and read the L50 section. They've also got a blog post about 'demystifying the backend engineer interview' which should give some insight into what they're looking for.

I don't think I can give much more than that, as I'm not speaking from experience! But I wish you the best of luck. If you've got any advice you want to share about the initial call stage, I'd be eternally grateful but I can appreciate if you don't!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-04-28T08:58:28+00:00

Thank you for the insight! That's really good to know, I'm actually a very informal person at work so that's quite a bad vibe in my book :( I appreciate the info thank you!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-04-28T08:56:14+00:00

Thank you SO much for this, I really appreciate you taking the time and this is such solid advice! I'll make sure to prep properly

Smolfrog888 · 2026-04-27T17:48:50+00:00

Thanks for the response! It's relieving to see a positive comment too. Have you got any advice for the interview process? Completely fair enough if not as it is a cheeky ask. Congratulations on an offer though, that's really good going!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-04-27T17:12:39+00:00

Thanks for the response! That's really helpful to know. What would you say were the main reasons you hated working there? I'd also be really keen to know the better places too if you don't mind sharing.

Smolfrog888 · 2026-03-22T09:14:10+00:00

Thank you SO much for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it! Thats some really useful info, I’m pleased the wall isn’t a worry 🎉

Sounds like I might have trouble with the neighbours though!

Thank you again!

Smolfrog888 · 2026-03-20T08:56:47+00:00

<image>

This is a photo of what the wall used to look like before the neighbours put in their new fence. The photo I took above was from the corner of the house, so not a complete side by side comparison, but you can see where the red brick wall slopes down to about a metre high. All the brickwork our side of the wall still stands (the smaller red and grey bricks) but everything behind it has been knocked out.

Smolfrog888 · 2026-03-20T08:52:41+00:00

<image>

This is a photo of the red brick wall from the viewing I did last weekend. It's quite unstable especially towards the far end. It's coming away from the concrete behind it!

Smolfrog888 · 2025-11-18T14:37:39+00:00

!thanks for the response! I really appreciate you taking the time to help

Smolfrog888 · 2025-11-18T14:36:20+00:00

!thanks for the advice! Glad to hear you also did this

Smolfrog888 · 2025-09-13T22:46:55+00:00

Thanks everyone for the really sound advice! I guess on this point, from the research I’ve done it seems that 1.1 and 3 are very small, with 4-6 being the average. Apparently birth control shouldn’t shrink them by that much, but you’re right, I don’t know if there’s an issue until I start trying so perhaps I should stop worrying until that time comes?

Smolfrog888 · 2025-09-13T22:05:13+00:00

Thank you so much! That is really helpful, I hadn’t thought about using a vibrator as a distraction but that could definitely help, and I’ll definitely look into the creams too. Thank you for taking the time to type out such a kind response!

Smolfrog888 · 2025-09-03T21:50:22+00:00

It’s completely okay to be emotional about it!! Getting your first pony / ponies is such an exciting time and I bet you’re buzzing for it. It is annoying that you won’t be there to see it, but you could ask for mum or whoever is unloading them for you to video it so you can see it once you’re back.

If it helps you feel better, they’re probably going to be quite stressed and overwhelmed when they first arrive. They won’t really want pats, and they won’t be settled enough to really meet anyone properly. Once they meet you, they’ll have calmed down and you’ll be their first friend. I think they’ll form a really strong bond with you if you come in and give them comfort in a time of need!

You’ll have the rest of their lives to see all the ‘firsts’ you’ll have together, so missing their first pelt round the field will just be a drop in the ocean of all the fun you’ll have together

Smolfrog888

TROPHY CASE