They Say I'm "Too High Level" = I Have No Idea What I'm Doing?

I was recently asked what it means when a candidate receives the feedback that they are "too high level" or "too academic".  If you have received this feedback, here is something to keep in mind.

Get tactical.

When you answer questions or talk about yourself in the interview process, please focus on actual experiences you have had.  Describe what the challenges were.  Tell the interviewer what you did to overcome them.  Share what you learned and (very important) what you would do differently, the next time.  

Then, describe what you did that "next time," to demonstrate that you took the learnings from the first experience, and applied those learnings to the new situation.  Did that produce improved results?  Describe how or why -- or why not.

In short, speak from real world experience, and not from training, school, books, research or the experiences of other people.  All those sources of knowledge are useful and important for you but if you have not digested them and acted upon them in the workplace, they aren't particularly impressive.