>"Yeah, I was the CTO of a startup. I learned a lot. Call this guy who was the CEO, he'll tell you about it."

Ah yes, an intricate lie. The very foundation of a solid working relationship.

No one you work for has a "relationship" with you unless there is nepotism involved. They will lie to you. They will throw you out when you don't make them money. The only "lie" is that there is a "relationship" and if you believe it, it will end up making you very unhappy. Live for yourself and your family.

I've never had reason to embellish my resume, but let's not pretend employers don't exaggerate, are "aspirational" or outright lie what the job is about "You'll be working on cutting-edge technology" vs. "Actually, we plan on migrating to that cutting-edge platform soon, in the meantime, add features to our 'legacy' PHP5 and Java 1.7 platforms" and "We offer unlimited vacation" vs. "Everyone usually only takes the week between Christmas and new years as our clients shut down then. Currently, the team really needs your contribution to make the release deadline, so now is not a good time"

Both interviewer and interviewee have to be diligent during interview process to dig out the truth about important aspects of what they expect, and not just take it at face-value (asking pointed questions usually reveals the truth, for either party)

Companies lie to employees all the time; it's literally not illegal.

If you get stock compensation maybe you could sue them for securities fraud.

> Ah yes, an intricate lie.

Not a joke -- what do you think resumes are?

Wait, is putting fake jobs on your resume a common occurrence? I must say that that never even occurred to me.

There's a thick line between _putting an out-and-out fake job on your resume_ and _embellishing_ a little bit to optimize your profile.

If my prospective employer has an issue with me having taken a sabbatical, I'd rather not work with them.