Okay. They treated upwardly mobile staff tougher than external applicants and were open about it afterwards. It seemed a little unfair. Additionally, the interview questions weren't really relevant to the job.

I applied internally, and my interview was 2 weeks after submitting my online application. The interview was 2 hours, and consisted of 5 competency questions centred around Nationwide's values, and also a role play in which you have to interview a customer for a mortgage. I was interviewed by two area managers. You have 30 minutes to read the case study, and prepare your questions. One of your interviewers will play a customer - I had a customer who was moving home. You then have to recommend a product for them, make any appropriate referrals to colleagues, then you have to write up your recommendation. They expect you to include why you recommended what you did, and how the product is appropriate to the customer.