Cheat the system? You're having a laugh!
So, Matey feels he has a chance or progressing his career quickly and perhaps down the right path for him, and getting a shot at a bloody healthy portion of the pie - something in his own words he has never had before. Let's call it "the big break". To polish ones CV is one thing, to blatantly tell pork pies another.
When I started in IT, I spent 000's of hours teaching myself what I wanted to know (had a GNVQ in IT and some other irrelevant (to that field qualifications)) a mate of mine was self employed as an IT contractor, so I wrote on my CV i'd spent time with him (unpaid) to 'gain commercial experience' and other such, a blatant pork pie. I got the job as systems admin and went on to do really quite alright for myself at such a young age.
Who did it harm? no one. Did it do me any negativity? No. What detriment to my CV did it do? None.
What positives did it give me? that 'big break' I wanted in my chosen career at the time. I knew full well I was more than capable of doing the work (my mate was my referee and said pretty much the same) I soon quickly progressed and ended up with a pretty good job with pretty much most of my colleagues at least 10yrs older than me.
I don't condone lying nor do I lie now, however, if it's just a bit of CV polish and a friendly referee, and if matey is believes in himself to pull it off then i'd have my covering letter written before the first bit of ink started to dry.
I was once told something "You can teach a skill or two all day long to pretty much anyone, but you sure as hell can't teach someone the willingness to learn" It's so true. If Mr Showfiti is an absolute plank, then he'll fall on his own arse and screw things up for his bud, but surely you wouldn't ask a question like this without thinking you've got more than a 75/80% chance of getting a job offer.
Put it in riding a bike terms. Someone tells you that doing that 6' drop off is a piece of cake and "you can do it" so, if you think you're pretty handy on the bike, what do you do? get off and walk down because, you know, you might screw it up and land on your arse, or, do you have a bloody good go at it?
Make a calculated decision, think long and hard whether you can do it, if you can, get out there and get it done.
Good luck and all the best.
jt
