I applied through the website, got an email from the manager setting up a phone interview. I had a phone interview the next day, then an in-person interview about a week later. I spoke with two people in the interview, which lasted about an hour. One person would have been my manager, and the other would have been my counterpart. It was clear that the counterpart had formal training in L&D (i.e. a degree in education), which I did not. They (the counterpart) asked several questions intended to demonstrate the superiority of formal L&D education as opposed to my experience as a director of L&D at a startup for 5 years with formal education in the actual field and 20 yrs experience teaching people from elementary age to adults. They ultimately went with someone internal who had formal L&D training. The actual manager seemed more open to my experience, but I got the feeling there was pressure from above to tick boxes. Ultimately, they made the right decision. An environment interested in ticking boxes was not the right fit for me.