pladis Global Interview Questions
& Process

I recently went through a multi-stage interview process with Pladis, and it genuinely stood out for all the right reasons. From start to finish, the communication, openness, and overall humanity in the process were exceptional, and it stood out compared to many other interview processes I’ve been through. I worked closely with Ross in Talent Acquisition, who was consistently attentive, transparent, and proactive. He took the time to understand my experience, kept me updated at every stage, and made sure I had what I needed to prepare. When a role came up that aligned well with my background, he reached out quickly, talked it through properly, and guided me through each step - our conversations always felt collaborative and constructive. I also met several people across the business during the interviews, including the hiring manager and another member of the HR team. Every interaction reinforced the impression of a warm, grounded, genuinely collaborative culture. People were friendly, open, and easy to talk to, and that warmth really set the experience apart. Even though things didn’t progress this time, I came away with a very positive view of Pladis and would absolutely be interested in exploring future opportunities with them.

I applied for a role and got a call about 0 days later from the recruiter, a screening call. She said she would put me forward and I had an interview. There was no feedback at all despite emailing her to ask. The lady that interviewed me spent a good majority of the time speaking about herself and how she came to be in the directorship position she was in. Interviews for the most part are about getting to know a candidate and understanding their capabilities as well as hearing about the company and the role. There was an obvious air of arrogance with the interviewer, having one person interview you always risks bias. This felt that way!

The interview process was okay, the people who interviewed me were great. But the HR was appalling, no feedback or replies to emails at all. I emailed HR multiple times for feedback on the role, but didn't even get an acknowledgement. A simple yes or no would have been fine after I took days off for interviews and studied the company etc. The interviewers were great though. The career site says there are still 2-3 roles in progress that I applied for. My advice is that communication is key, and it was very poor from the HR side.

The interview process was overly complicated and felt unfair, with the number of stages seeming to vary. It dragged on for over 3 months. It started with a screening call with the hiring manager (30 mins). Then, there was a F2F interview which included a 20-minute case study presentation and competency-based questions with the hiring manager and marketing director (1 hour). Next, an online leadership/personality assessment (45 mins). This was followed by a competency-based interview with the HR manager and hiring manager (1 hour). The final stage was a competency-based interview with the CMO and Chief HR (45 mins). The process felt unfair because I was blindsided in the final stage; the CMO expected me to re-do my presentation from 6 weeks prior, even though HR had told me beforehand it would only be competency-based questions. What also made it biased was that the other final candidate was apparently warned and prepped to present. Their main feedback for not offering me the job was about my focus on company culture, which the CMO and Chief HR admitted they don't have established yet - a huge red flag. While the company has great heritage brands and the hiring manager was brilliant, a bad company culture is a deal-breaker. Be cautious if you're applying.