u/FableHarborCo

For about a year I was doing the thing where every answer in an interview was constructed to demonstrate breadth. I wanted to sound senior. I used words like "spearheaded" and "cross-functional" and "drove alignment" and I packaged everything as large-scale impact. My answers were technically accurate but they were also vague in a way I didnt fully recognise at the time because I was too focused on sounding like someone who belonged in the role. My callback rate after first rounds was terrible. A friend who does recruiting reviewed a mock interview I did with her and said something that stuck with me: "You sound like a press release about yourself. I cant picture what you actually do day to day." I spent the next two weeks rebuilding every answer around specifics. Not "I led a team through a challenging product launch" but "I had four engineers and a designer, we were behind by three weeks, here's the specific thing I did to get us back on track and here's exactly what happened." Numbers where I had them. Names of tools. Actual decisions I made and why. The framing felt smaller and more vulnerable and I was convinced it would make me sound junior. It did not. I got offers from three of the next five companies I interviewed with. Two of the hiring managers specifically mentioned during the offer calls that I came across as unusually self-aware and grounded. I think what was actually happening is that specificity reads as confidence. Vague impressive language reads as someone who doesnt fully understand their own work. The switch wasnt comfortable but it was correct.