A few days after application, I got scheduled in for an informal call with HR. The call was very brief (20minutes) and only consisted in me walking the interviewer (who had zero scientific knowledge) through my CV. I assume the purpose of this step is to make sure the candidate is not a complete disaster. A week later I had my 30 minutes video interview with the two hiring managers. The conversation was friendly and went very well but I felt it was quite cold and emotionless compared to other interviews I had before. I was asked usual questions about motivations and previous experience. Two weeks later, I got notified that my application wouldn't have been taken further: it was felt I interviewed very well but that I was too experienced for the position, and that they would have proceeded with more JUNIOR candidates. This hardly made sense to me, as I am a PhD holder with less than 5 years since PhD and no industry experience nor direct experience on the subject, and the position was for a SENIOR scientist. Overall, it was clear the actual position they were looking for did not correspond to the job title (they were looking for someone to work on a relatively standardised and routine project), and I feel like they could have played this a bit better, so to avoid making candidates like me waste their time.

Recruiter screen, then manager interview. Manager was looking for specific skills. There was a list of skills that were not listed in the job posting but were important for the position.