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Comment by zubar | Hacker News Reader

So I should lie about what I've been doing for the past 2 years?

You're sounding like an ass. Get off your high horse! The advice here is free my friend.

Have a serious think about what you're doing at the moment, bitching at a group of entrepreneurs/tech heads about a bad job application. Think you're the only one here that's either A) Been in this position or B) Currently in this position?

Well, remember that a.) wrapping up a failed startup and b.) getting turned down for jobs afterwards is a very stressful and emotionally demanding experience. I went through it less than a year ago; I can certainly empathize.

Zubar's attitude certainly isn't productive: he'd get a more positive response by acknowledging that ok, the startup is dead, what can I learn from this? But it's understandable. It's often not easy to be rational in the face of multiple rejections.

100% agree.

You could shade the truth, yes. For instance, you might say you were an employee, rather than stakeholder. An employer looking for conformism isn't going to care about that sort of lie, because it's a lie told in order to conform.

As to the truism that lying on your C.V. is a very bad idea, well, it is, but so is trying to recruit excessively conformist employees. You've put yourself in a position where you can't both conform and be truthful, so decide!

"CEO and Founder of startup.com" -> "Senior Django Developer for startup.com"

This could actually be better in some cases, because he can dress his deferred salary (which can be whatever he wants it to be with no contest, since it will never be paid) as an actual salary.

You can do that, but even in exactly the same market, two different companies (or contract firms, in my case) may want diametrically opposite changes to your resume (or CV, in your case). Here in the DC area, I was told to play down my business ownership and that the amount of money I was asking was "unrealistic" (and did I want to maybe talk about something 20-30K lower?) within a coupla weeks of being hired at more than the "unrealistic" salary by someplace I'd sent the older version of my resume. It's incredibly variable.

Unscrupulous recruiters have a habit of trying to get you to come down on salary. Remember that their incentives are not the same as yours.

I had the same experience. Had been employed at X, headhunter told me to consider jobs at X-15 (this was February 2007). I got one at X+35.

"Lie" is such a strong term.

Relentlessly resourceful: doing whatever is necessary to get where/what you want. (But be a good person about it and don't step on other people.)

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