I just finished my master's degree with several years interim work experience. My master's is in international business but at undergraduate level I had several finance courses. This job was to be a derivative analyst -basically back office work for processing documents and making sure they are within regulation, etc. I worked at a mortgage company doing back office work which is why I believe I had the interview despite not being a finance major.
They asked 4 questions concerning 4 of the 10 core competencies of the company. They emailed me with a list of topics the interview questions would be over and advised how to prepare the responses: stating the situation, the task, the scenario, the solution, the outcome. While this was helpful information and it helped me prepare answers for my questions, it led to me over preparing because you don't know what questions/competencies will be. They then asked me questions about financial products. The interview seemed to be going well as I had well prepared for it and had finance knowledge.
They asked me what my salary expectations were and I said while I know this is an entry-level position, I do have some experience and a master's degree with top honors that I would like to be recognized for. I believe that they wanted someone inexperienced or willing to take lower wages. I also had to tell them I needed off for a several in a few months for my wedding, which is something that does not have a flexible time period. I believe that my wedding would have conflicted with the several month long training period.
Overall, it was a relaxed low-key interview. No questions were difficult because they gave you so much time to prepare solid answers in advance. I was disappointed in the caliber of the questions, I believe they could have asked more difficult questions in order to showcase my skills. Ultimately, the job was aimed at someone fresh out of undergraduate which is why they gave so much information on preparing.
The environment of the office was very clean, modern, and more relaxed than some places, but the desks were small and left little room for personalization with pictures, etc. The HR staff were friendly if not a bit disorganized because they misplaced my documents after the interview and I sat alone for 15 minutes waiting for my proofs.
*RBS requires a lot of paperwork for their interviews including but not limited to paycheck stubs from past employers of 3 years, proof of address for 3 years, proof of degrees, explanations of periods of unemployment and documents to back them up, etc.