It's widely accepted around here that hiring in Tech is pretty broken. Good engineers are routinely rejected due to asinine HR requirements such as not having experience in a particular technology or for taking legitimate career breaks. Plus, most job postings are already inundated by CVs that range from those that have minor embellishments to those that contain outright lies. (Not to mention the fact that employers are often engaging in deceitful behaviour about the nature of their own roles)
Given this, engineers that elect to be more honest are potentially putting themselves at a significant career disadvantage.
In light of all this, if one is certain that they would be a good applicant for the job:
A) Is it unethical to lie about one's experience in order to get the job?
B) Is it smart to do so given the risk of getting caught out?
"Lying" here could mean anything from listing experience in a (easily learned, possibly adjacent) technology, to things such as listing fake jobs or using a friend as a job reference.
For those with spotty resumes, is this an allowable form of deceit?
If one believes that "lying" is acceptable to some degree, what techniques are fair game? What should be avoided?
Don't lie. If you are caught in a lie you can immediately be dismissed.
Dissimulation is OK. I've had times that I left out some of my educational history on my resume because I didn't want to be perceived as "overqualified".
Self-promotion is OK. For instance if there is some hot technology that is easy to learn and adjacent to your experiment you can knock off a quick but flashy side project.
Job interviews frequently work to reject candidates by default, there is a large bag of tricks that can be used to disrupt this process. One reason why bureaucratic places like Google have structured hiring processes is to prevent the use of judo and Jedi mind tricks that work on the average hiring manager. This guy's writings are tame compared to what I know but were pivotal in my losing my fear of job interviews
https://job-interview-answers.com/job-interview-tips/about-b...
I'd say the ethics of these methods depend on your motivation and how you use them. There are many hiring managers who feel like they've wasted a huge amount of time interviewing the last 10 people they rejected and you will make them very happy that they can hire somebody and get back to work.
None?
I don't think you should or have to lie. You have to learn how to market and promote yourself. Phrasing your highlight reels in a way that makes you shine doesn't necessitate lying.
Anything you put in your resume/cv is fair game for interviews. If you claim FORTRAN in your skillset, you should expect to be grilled on it.