Went through the Jane Street account executive / sales interview process last fall. Wasn't sure what to expect coming from enterprise SaaS, where the loop is pretty formulaic. This was different in a few interesting ways.
First phone screen was with a recruiter. Standard background stuff, but they pushed harder on 'why trading' than I expected. I gave a half-baked answer about markets being dynamic and she kind of just waited. Not hostile, but definitely not letting me off the hook. Went back and prepared a lot more about how electronic market-making works before the next round.
Second round was two back-to-back calls: one with a senior trader and one with a business development person. The trader asked me to walk through a recent deal I closed and specifically wanted to know how I understood the client's actual decision process, not just the stakeholder map. The BD person went deeper on market structure. They care that you've read about how equities/ETF trading works. Not quant-level math, but you need to understand lit vs dark pools, maker-taker, that kind of thing at a conceptual level.
Onsite was four rounds, mix of case and behavioral. One round was a pure negotiation simulation: they gave me a scenario and had me role-play both sides. Felt very much like a sales skills assessment rather than a culture fit chat.
Things I wish I'd known: They're not hiring you to cold-call. This is relationship-driven business development with institutional clients. Know your product: understand what Jane Street actually does better than other market makers. Why do hedge funds route to them? What's the edge? Behavioral rounds weight client empathy heavily. 'How did you understand what the client actually needed vs what they said they needed' is a theme.
Overall a more intellectually rigorous process than typical fintech sales loops. Offer was contingent on background check and took about 10 days after final round to land.