Why Speaking in Abstracts Fails in Interviews, and What to Do Instead

Itay Sharfi
Jul 25
3 min read

Generic answers feel safer, but they don’t get you hired. Here’s why—and how to fix it.

If you’ve ever walked out of an interview thinking, “I didn’t say anything wrong… so why didn’t I move forward?”, this might be why:

You spoke in abstracts.

What Does It Mean to “Speak in Abstracts”?

Speaking in abstracts means using vague ideas instead of walking through what you actually did. Words like “alignment,” “impact,” or “leadership” without a specific example don’t help.

Here’s what that sounds like:

“I focus on authenticity and active listening.”
“We used AI to improve engagement.”
“I believe in aligning business goals with user needs.”

These don’t show what happened. There’s no action. No data. No outcome.

In interviews, abstract talk creates doubt. Hiring managers can’t tell how you think or whether you’ve done the work before. That’s why clear, detailed answers work better.

A Real-Life Example: Trust That Didn’t Land

I worked with a sales engineer preparing for a behavioral interview. I asked, “How do you build trust with clients?”

He said: “Trust is really important in presales. You have to listen, be authentic, and give customers space to express their needs.”

That answer could apply to anyone in any role. It didn’t show what he did.

Here’s what he should have said:

“A client flagged a security concern that blocked our pilot. I brought in our lead architect, mapped the concern to our roadmap, and revised our demo environment to meet their requirement. That built trust and led to a signed deal three weeks later.”

Same concept. But now it’s real. Now it proves something.

Why Abstracts Fail, And Specifics Win

Abstract:

“Improved engagement.”
“Led a team.”
“Drove alignment.”

Concrete:

“Reduced drop-off by 30% through onboarding changes.”
“Managed a team of four engineers delivering a feature used by 120K users.”
“Aligned two departments by negotiating new SLAs after a 6-week delay.”

Specifics show:

You owned something
You understood the problem
You made a difference

That's what interviewers need to put you in the top 10%. And only the top 10% get hired today.

How to Be Specific Without Rambling

Being specific means giving the right level of detail to help someone evaluate you. You don’t need a technical deep dive. You need to show your role and impact.

Use this:

Context — What was going wrong?
Action — What did you do?
Result — What changed?

If you want to go further:

4. Reflection — What would you do differently next time?

Examples: Before and After

Abstract: “I worked on AI to improve customer engagement.”

Concrete: “I fine-tuned a PyTorch ResNet model on 10,000 product images to detect quality issues. That reduced manual review time by 40%.”

Abstract: “I’d improve monetization by aligning better with user behavior.”

Concrete: “I A/B tested a freemium tier with a 7-day conversion window. After spotting drop-off at day five, we shifted upsell messaging and improved conversion by 12%.”

How to Practice

Write down three projects you’re proud of.
For each one, answer:
- What was the problem?
- What was your role?
- What changed because of your work?
Say it out loud. If it still sounds like a slogan, add numbers, or tools.

Final Thought

“An abstraction without a concrete is a meaningless generality.”

In interviews, that kind of generality doesn’t help you.

Be clear. Be specific. Be someone they can trust to get the job done.

The Takeaways

Vague ideas don’t show how you work.
Specifics reveal results and decision-making.
You don’t need every detail, just the ones that prove you did the job.
Practice by turning generic statements into examples.
Play to win, not to avoid ending at the bottom.

If you want help turning your experience into clear stories that land interviews, my program offers mock interview coaching.