went through the netflix AE interview for a role on their advertising sales side (netflix ads has grown a lot since they launched the ad tier). sharing notes because sales interview content for netflix is basically nonexistent online.
background: i have 8 years in enterprise ad sales, spent 4 of them at a major streaming competitor. that context apparently mattered.
the process:
recruiter screen, then a hiring manager call, then a panel onsite with four rounds. total timeline was about 4 weeks.
recruiter screen (30 min): standard. she was testing whether i had familiarity with CTV/streaming ad sales specifically and whether my quota numbers were in the right tier. netflix ads is a high-ACV sale, they're not looking for someone who's been running $50k deals.
HM call (1 hour): this felt like a real conversation, not an interview. he walked me through the ad product roadmap, asked a lot about how i structure multi-stakeholder deals, and wanted to understand how i've navigated buying committee complexity at large advertisers. bring your 'i closed the hard one' stories here.
onsite rounds: sales pitch / demo simulation: they gave me a mock client brief and had me pitch netflix advertising against a competitor. i treated it exactly like a real pitch. showed reach data, CPM comparisons, why CTV measurement is better than linear for their attribution needs. they stopped me and asked objections. this is where you show you know the product. revenue and territory planning: how do you build and manage a book, how do you prioritize accounts, what's your process for forecasting. data-forward answers landed better than narrative ones. behavioral rounds x2: the netflix culture stuff. 'tell me about a time you disagreed with how a deal was being handled internally.' 'what would you do if you thought your manager was wrong about pricing strategy.' lots of courage and candor themes.
comp (my offer): base in the $175-185k range (this is high for AE base by most industry standards). variable target around $90-100k on top. total OTE north of $265k for a senior AE depending on territory. no RSUs in the initial offer which was a bit of a surprise.
the ad sales org is newer, so the culture feels slightly different from the classic netflix culture deck energy. faster-moving, more ambiguity about processes, but also genuinely exciting if you want to be early in something big.