Did the GS sales loop earlier this year for an enterprise AE role on the commercial banking side. Not securities, not investment banking, the team that sells treasury and cash management products to mid-market and enterprise clients. Posting because the interview structure is genuinely different from standard SaaS sales and took me off guard in round 2.
Phone screen. 20 minutes with a recruiter. Quota attainment, deal size, average cycle length. They want big numbers: are you closing $1M+ ARR, are you working 6-18 month cycles. If you're coming from SMB SaaS this is probably a mismatch.
Hiring manager interview, 60 min. Behavioral-heavy. The STAR format applies but the questions lean toward relationship management over pipeline creation. "Tell me about a deal you saved after it looked lost," "Describe a time you navigated a procurement process with multiple stakeholders," "Walk me through the largest deal you closed, what was the committee structure." Goldman's clients are CFOs and treasurers, so the stories need to match that tier.
Case/presentation round. This was the surprise. They gave me a 48-hour take-home: prepare a 15-minute pitch for a fictional mid-market company that's outgrown its current banking provider. I had to show product fit, competitive positioning, and a plan for the first 90 days post-close. They weren't testing deep product knowledge, they were testing whether I could structure a narrative for a sophisticated buyer. Think consultative sell, not feature dump.
Final panel. Three people: another manager, a senior client director, and someone from the product side. More behavioral, a couple curveball market questions. Nothing that required deep financial modeling but I was expected to talk about macro headwinds intelligently.
Offer came back about 10 days after final. Base was competitive for financial services but not FAANG SaaS money. The upside is in the bonus, which is significant if you're hitting plan.