I'm 33 years old, I just managed to get a job this november, after 6 years of unemployment despite having a master's degree (I've been through a very severe depression due to a disability, which already made it hard to work, but no one cares in the real world: companies don't care about your hardships).
How'd I do it? Two friends of mine, legit business owners, gave me references (3 years each) and work certificates signed by their hands, so that I could have a proper resume. The business I work for did a thorough background check, and since the references are legit, as well as the business owners who confirmed that I “worked for them”, it ended up working perfectly well.
The job is ok, the managers like me, I'm doing fine.
If I hadn't done that, I'd never have been able to get a job, because you're not allowed to go through tough shit in life.
So no, fuck that, “fake it 'til you make it”. It's not something I was proud of, but I'm the living example of someone who wouldn't have been hired by anyone if I hadn't.
All the people who keep saying that it's bad to lie live in a fucking fairy tail. Millions of us would be looked at like animals, and be thrown to the streets, if we did.
edit: this is in Europe though, I don't know how it's like in America. It would be extremely difficult to prove anything for anyone (to the point where no company would try to) since the business owners are the ones claiming I was an employee (and I suppose very few people go to such lengths to lie), but maybe it's not that easy in the United States?