What it training budget, 1:1 coaching, certificate sponsorship etc? What made it's culture standout from a learning perspective?
The second often morphs into or informs the first.
- my company has a formally-structured approach to training / knowledge gathering
My understanding is that this would appear in the form of a training budget, classroom sessions, sponsored courses / certification etc. This is fairly standard across the industry.
- my company provides me the ability to independently structure my process of inquiry without interference or external management
Could you give some examples of how this manifests in real-life scenarios? I'm not clear on what you mean exactly.
The second approach relies upon independent inquiry plus personal initiative, a strong requirement for a senior engineer, who may be independently approaching a problem for the first time and understands the value of time spent (e.g., avoidance of rabbit holes, the need to document one's findings, etc.).
As an example–in a company full of senior engineers, the relative merit of time spent to develop training coursework is offset by the cost of getting other, more valuable work done; as a consequence, hiring decisions are often made based on a given candidate's ability to work on one's own, rather than being led.
On the other hand–in a larger company that has a wider variety of experience levels, training and certification are a must-have in order to bring forth capable employees that can rise to individual challenges without hand-holding.
Does that make sense?