Work in HR or Recruiting?
GDS International
www.gdsinternational.com Bristol, United Kingdom 150 to 499 Employees
Work in HR? Complete Your Profile

GDS International Interview Questions & Reviews

Getting the Interview  11 Interviews

63%
19%
8%

Interview Experience  9 Ratings

33%
44%
22%
11 interview experiences
Updated Mar 12, 2013
in
Sort:  Relevance Newest Easiest Hardest
Interview Outcome:   All No Offer Received Offer

International Sales Executive at GDS International

Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Jan 2013 – Reviewed Jan 24, 2013

Interview Details – 1 phone interview and 2 office interviews, currently in 1st training week so will see how it goes, I have read a lot of bad reviews, but I have no issues to report so far. I will update in about 2-3 weeks after my first pay check. I have declined other offers and told everyone about my new job so I hope this is really training week and not an audition week. I was promised no bait and switch in the interview and was giving a formal offer.

Interview Question – Only one difficult question. it was more about getting a feel for me and explaining what the job was.   Answer Question

Negotiation Details – No real negotiation, I was satisfied with initial offer, I will negotiate when I'm in a stronger position i.e: when I prove my self. it is a performance based job.

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

Event Manager at GDS International

No Offer – Interviewed in New York, NY Mar 2012 – Reviewed May 31, 2012

Interview Details – Fine interview- pretty generic. No real "thoughtful" or tough questions. Atmosphere of work environment was definitely not my style, but can see how others would fit in better. (Must like answering to numbers- which I didn't see as relevant for an event manager... but it seems to be an extremely sales oriented place.)

Interview Question – Question about hobbies/what you do outside work   Answer Question

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

International Sales Executive at GDS International

Declined Offer – Interviewed in New York, NY Dec 2011 – Reviewed Jan 30, 2012

Interview Details – The entire interview process consisted of 1 phone interview and 2 in person interviews on different days. The phone interview was with one of the two HR reps. She asked me several generic questions about my background, explained the basics of the job role and asked if it was something I could see myself doing. The phone interview took about 5 minutes tops.

The next interview was in person, with the same HR rep. I met her at the office and the interview was about 30 minutes, very simple and easy with very few questions. She asked me what my hobbies were and what I liked to do for fun. There was no real discussion of my previous experience nor the job role itself really- instead she mainly talked about all the perks, to get me excited (and it worked at the time). She said that most people in the role make at least 100k their first year then asked me if that was a salary I was comfortable with (obviously... ), then she went on to talk about the travel opportunities and prizes for hitting goals. That was about it.

Then a few days later she followed up with me to invite me back for a third interview, this time with the other HR rep. I was skeptical at this point considering the last interview was eerily easy and not complex at all. However, I went in for the second in person interview and met with the other HR rep. He asked me more in depth questions to my relief, asked me to describe how I would handle certain difficult situations over the phone, how my previous roles and experiences would translate to helping me in this position, etc. Overall he asked very good, in depth questions that made me feel like they were really taking these interviews seriously in trying to find the best people for the role.

A few days later I was called back and offered a position. I accepted at that point. I was told the first week would be a training week. One of the HR reps emailed me with the employment letter, but said that for the first week I'd only get a $250 stipend, and the actual salary wouldn't start until the next week. I was concerned about this and asked her, asking if that meant that I wouldn't necessarily be officially hired until successful completion of the training week. She quickly assured me this was not the case, that I was already officially hired. She didn't really explain though why they only paid $250 for the first week. I later found out.

I started the training week, with an idea of what the position would be like in my head based on what the two HR reps had described it as. I was in a training group with 7 other individuals. 4 women, 4 men- all between the ages of 23-late 30s. Everyone was really nice. Both HR reps were also training us for the week. I found out later that the two of them were initially sales executives and then became heads of HR not long after. That doesn't really compute for me.

\ We had to practice reading through a ridiculously wordy sales pitch. Rather than how we articulated ourselves or how we spun the words, they were more concerned with (literally) how loud we spoke when we read the script. We had to all walk around the sales floor and basically yell the sales pitch over and over. We were told we were "constantly being watched" by managers and execs, who were mostly focused on how loud we were being, and that's what they judged our skills and qualifications on.

We were able to speak with other sales execs on the floor to get feedback about the job from them, which proved very helpful. They were honest with us. They said that the training week was actually a week to weed people out- that "not everyone makes it" through the training week, and that we're constantly being watched and 'scored' all week. They said there was a very high turnover rate. We were told that the industry we would be working in/the teams we would be placed on all depended on which managers wanted which employees on their teams, if our "personalities matched".

Ultimately I made a decision at the end of the training week to not continue on. I was already unnecessarily stressed out and this was only a training week, not the actual job. They were very secretive as well. The HR rep even wrote on a piece of paper something to not tell us/talk about and handed it to one of the managers when they were meeting with us.

The managers for the most part were VERY unprofessional as well- most of them had condescending "holier than thou" attitudes and swore A LOT. I don't get offended easily and my last role was in a casual work environment where everyone got along and was friendly/young- but no one spoke that way.

It was a waste of time. Still got my $250 though, thanks.

Interview Question – The questions weren't difficult.   Answer Question

Reason for Declining – I chose to decline the offer because the role itself became clear to me that it was so much different than was initially described. Everyone seemed miserable and I could tell I was going to be miserable if I continued working there.

The way they judged your skills and ability to perform the job was completely ridiculous. I was reduced from an intelligent, creative, hard working individual to some puppet that they controlled to do whatever they wanted and I wasn't about to play that game. It was just a sneaky, borderline creepy training week and despite the promise of a really decent salary, I was not going to sacrifice my wellbeing/livelihood for that.

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

International Sales Executive at GDS International

Accepted Offer – Interviewed in New York, NY Apr 2010 – Reviewed Apr 19, 2010

Interview Details – In my 13 years of interviewing, I had never encountered a more dishonest, abusive and misrepresentation and misleading interview as this. The HR director misleads you on being hired, provides you with a company contract, then after you start on a Monday, you walk in a room of !$ or more people, they then inform you of their verbal and written exams in which you MUST pass to get the job.... But even when and if you pass, this is not a guarantee of employment as you might just NOT fit in their environment. They hire based on their opinion of fitting in, and not credentials or even the ability to perform well. Be Very Careful!!

Interview Questions

Negotiation Details – I was not able to negotiat as I was not even given the chance to work, even after having passed in fact done well in their exams.

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

Senior Sales Executive at GDS International

Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Bristol, England (UK) Aug 2009 – Reviewed Mar 12, 2013

Interview Details – Telephone interview to start, followed by a first f2f with recruiter, then a second with the head of division you'd be working within. Very fair process, and you get a good introduction to the whole company.

Interview Question – Unfortunately, i was a recent graduate and this was my first and only interview so far. All of it was unexpected.   Answer Question

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

Sales Executive at GDS International

Declined Offer – Reviewed Dec 11, 2012

Interview Details – Was contacted directly by HR. Set up an interview few days later. Your basic phone screen followed up with one on one.

Interview Question – Nothing too difficult. They want to see your enthusiasm and willingness to work on a sales floor.   Answer Question

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

Sales Executive at GDS International

Declined Offer – Reviewed Sep 18, 2012

Interview Details – Went on an interview and things looked a little fishy to me so i decided to do some research. I looked on LinkedIn and found a former employee. Told me about the company and decided to not go on.

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

International Sales Executive at GDS International

Declined Offer – Interviewed in Jul 2012 – Reviewed Aug 14, 2012

Interview Details – Was a joke from start to finish. Spoke with a chap called Frasier who promised the world and delivered nothing. When I walked into the office it stunk of a boiler room and was

Interview Question – There was nothing out of the ordinary   Answer Question

Reason for Declining – I saw a lot of negative posts and read http://gdsisascam.com

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

Manager at GDS International

Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Jan 2011 – Reviewed Jun 6, 2012

Interview Details – First I had a phone interview. Basic resume and background questions. After I had a 1 on 1 interview with a hiring manager. That interview was followed by another interview with the VP of Human resources. I was hired, kind of... There was then a on-week trial period/trainning period. Several of my group did not make it..

Interview Questions

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?

Sales Executive at GDS International

No Offer – Interviewed in Aug 2011 – Reviewed Aug 16, 2011

Interview Details – I would say quick to take action on resumes receoved. That is good. The HR department seems competent, capable, and asks good questions. It seems to me that that a week long selective training is a bit much for a hiring process that requires phone sales. I wasn't terribly impressed with the swear words coming from the sales floor. I prefer to be in a congenial atmosphere.

Interview Question – there were no unexpected questions.   Answer Question

More

Helpful Interview?  
Yes | No
Problem with this interview?
110 of 11 Interviews RSS Feed embed Embed
Interviews for Top Jobs at GDS International

Worked for GDS International? Contribute to the Community!

Add Review Add Salary Add Interview Review Add Photos

The difficulty rating is the average interview difficulty rating across all interview candidates.

The interview experience is the percentage of all interview candidates that said their interview experience was positive, neutral, or negative.

Your response will be removed from the review – this cannot be undone.