Summer analyst

After filling out the online application, I was invited to sit a numerical test, verbal reasoning test and a situational judgement test. RBS reverts with the test results fairly quickly (2-3 days). This was followed by a telephonic interview with a HR team member. It consisted of questions like tell me about yourself, why RBS, tell me about your accomplishments, development areas, how has the financial crisis affected banks, what sort of challenges do you think RBS faces, etc. Fairly basic and relaxed overall. The very next day I was informed about the assessment center which had 4 rounds- written test, group discussion, presentation and interview. The written test required the candidates to go through a lot of information about a company (financials, credit rating reports, press releases, etc.) and perform SWOT analysis, summarize the research and highlight further information that would be required to make recommendations to the company's CFO. The key was to use your time effectively and quickly find the relevant information from the thick information booklet given. This task was not supervised. The next stage was a group discussion where a few RBS employees were observing the discussion and asked a few questions toward the end. Each of the candidates then proceeded for a one on one presentation based on the group discussion. Since you had to present areas analyzed by others in the group it was important to develop an understanding of those areas as well. A flip chart was present in the presentation room and I would strongly recommend using it. The last stage was a one on one interview. My interview was very chilled out with majority of the questions based on my background and personality and a few technical questions (e.g.- what sources of information would you use to brief a senior team member before he meets with the client's CFO?). A positive and friendly attitude during the interview is important and making it as conversational as possible helps as well.