Fake It Till You Make It: Tales of Triumph Through Pretending

Thinking about where to get your daily needs is one of the hardest challenges in life. Sometimes, some people resort to faking or pretending to be someone they are not, especially when they desperately need a job.

However, it’s not an easy way to pretend to be someone you are not. And way too far from that persona. But these people from the Reddit community proved they could fake at first and make it in the end. It’s like setting their ideal self and becoming it for real.

1. Self Hired

I George Costanza'd my way into a job in high school. I was looking for a new job and went to apply at a local movie theater.

The general manager asked to interview me on the spot, which I wasn't at all prepared for, but I went with it anyway. This was like a Wednesday or Thursday night.

The interview went well, and she told me she was going to be out of town this weekend but she would let me know on Monday. I didn't want to wait, so the next day at school, I got my work permit filled out and took it back.

I dropped it off to another manager and told them she told me to bring this crap in. They asked if I could start the next day. I ended up working there for over three years.

kadno

Not me, but my cousin applied for a brand new restaurant job and didn’t get it. Her friend got the job, and she was pissed she didn’t get hired.

So her friend told her where/when orientation was, and she decided to “fake” getting hired til she “made it.” She went to orientation all the training, introduced herself to all the staff management, and made her presence known.

Everyone got their paychecks after a couple of weeks of working except her.

She went up to management and was like, “Wth? Everyone got paid but me...you’ve seen me working for the last two weeks!”

Management goes into the computer system and checks, “That’s so weird you’re not in the system...I’m so sorry. It must be a clerical error. We will get you in the system and paid right away!”

And that’s how my cousin Fake got hired til she made it. I wanna be like her when I grow up. It was so cool, lol. Imagine getting an instant job.

yoshismaster

I'm an artist who works in the film industry. Some years ago, my wife got pregnant (purposefully), and I had to try to find a way to make a more reliable income while she was on Maternity leave and for the foreseeable future, as we knew we weren't only having one. I also wanted to stay in film.

I got work as a Grip. Grunt work lugging things around set and building/setting up large bits of lighting gear. No clue what I was doing. I started off on big shows like The Flash and Arrow.

A friend got me to work on a small set, and only 13 days into working as a grip, which I didn't tell them, they made me the Key grip.

The key is to film a talk for the Manager. I was in charge of a whole department, which is one half of the lighting team. Faked it until I made it!

Fast forward over five years. I have over 30 credits to my name as a key grip. I own an entire 5-ton truck worth of gear that I rent out, making as much money per show as my wage.

My wife is back at work after having two kids, and I'm a stay-at-home dad with a consistent passive income and the time to continue to write and audition whenever I need.

Sticknpucker

I'd always been interested in programming. As a kid, I tried to teach myself C and Java with mild success. Fast forward to the time I'm 24.

I'm working as a piercing apprentice at a tattoo shop, making $20/day a few days per week. I meet a girl, fall for said girl, and end up pregnant.

A few hours after the pregnancy test, I applied for jobs on Craigslist, and I found a programming job a few minutes up the road.

I've worked with that company for maybe a few hours my entire life, but it was a tiny company, and the interview wasn't technical.

I lied through my teeth the entire time and got hired. After being hired, I tried to start learning programming on the job. The company's owner created his own framework, which was GOD AWFUL, so I couldn't figure it out for my life.

I got fired two weeks later. During those two weeks on the job, I made an honest effort to learn more about web design and development, so I offered my "design" services to a local web design company for free so that I could learn more.  

Walking home after being fired, I called the web design company, and they hired me. I would learn on the job for a year or so and then use my skills to get more money elsewhere.

Ten years later, I'm the lead software engineer on a big project, making just over six figures. If a pregnancy test hadn't scared me to death that day, I would still be working dead-end jobs.

[deleted]

I faked my entire professional career. I "played with computers" growing up, so far as I knew how to turn one on, download a game, and play them very well.

I knew next to nothing about building them or troubleshooting them, usually depending on my friends to help when my secondhand PC threw a fit.

Cut to me, fresh out of college with a waste of paper degree, looking for a job. I got hired by an IT contractor cause I knew a gal who knew a guy, with the understanding I needed to know the basics.

I didn't know anything. I made it up as I went along, googling the living crap out of everything. That was ten years ago. I'm now a Systems Administrator.

BumblingBlunderbuss

I started at a big old multinational in retail as a college dropout. I started at the lowest rung of customer service in a store.

Now retail has a lot of staff turnover. And a multinational has a ton of rules, or you’d expect them to have. Also, I’m not the dumbest around (never mind the college dropout. That’s another story), and well, to be fair, not everyone in retail is super smart.

So there was a consistent lack of management (or they didn’t care), and all the rules and regulations had gaps. So people start asking questions: How do I solve this? What should I do next? Etc.

Nobody had an answer to these questions, so I started answering them using common sense or what I thought should work. 

Just filling the gaps, which probably made me look a lot smarter than I am. Just faking that I knew what I was doing.

So I started climbing the ladders, and I am now the Senior Finance and Operations Director for a store with a gross turnover of over 160 million euros.

HOWEVER, cracks are starting to show. The company got a lot more serious, and I’m surrounded by smart people with high degrees where I can’t bluff my way through problems and meetings as easily.

So, I’m thinking of taking a step back and relaxing a bit more in a lower position. I was a lot happier then and had less stress and fewer hours.

Raukaris

I was desperate for a job several years back, so I wrote up this resume that was utter crap on a whim. Granted, some of it was legit, but a good 80% was me being a clown.

Amazingly enough, I got a call for an interview, and by some miracle, they ended up hiring me.

I worked for the place for seven years.

Then, something I was actually qualified for opened up at another workplace. That clownery resume saved me from ruin, so I will always look back on that crazy situation fondly.

-Fapologist-

I used to be a high school teacher. There was a 12-year-old who was one of the least likable children I had ever worked with. He had neither charm nor looks, personality nor intelligence.

He was sullen, resentful, belligerent, disruptive, and permanently sour-faced. When he entered the room, my heart would sink.

Then I remembered how my mother told me that when my sisters and I were little, and life was very busy, she would get up early to get some chores done.

Only sometimes we would wake up too. She said that her heart would sink when she heard our feet on the stairs because she knew she wouldn't get her chores all done now.

But she had promised herself that none of her children would ever be made to feel unwanted. 

So when we put our heads around the kitchen door, we were always greeted with a smile and a cheerful "Good morning!"

It occurred to me that in this lad's life, no one was ever pleased to see him. Not his mother, father, teachers, or siblings, and he had not much by way of friends.

He was nothing but a nuisance - a pest and an annoyance - to everyone who knew him. And that was heartbreaking. So, from then on, whenever he came into my classroom, I greeted him cheerfully and asked how he was doing.

Believe me, that smile was faked. I didn't feel it at all. Until one day, I did. I actually began to care for him. And sometimes, I even got a half-smile back.

usefulbluecustard

I faked myself as a Little League Baseball Coach. I was a soccer kid growing up who never played baseball, but I was dating a mother at the time.

And her son's Little League coach got fired because he would slap the boys on the arse after they hit a home run. The institution didn't like it, nor did the parents.

It wasn't that hard to figure out. Whenever a left-hander was at bat, I'd shift my infield to the right, and everyone thought I was a genius defensive technician.

laterdude

I had horrible postpartum after one of my sons was born. I was not bonded with the baby at all. I was protective of him but didn't feel like he was my son. It was awful.

I told my mom about it when he was about 1. She said, "Take every opportunity to call him 'my son'. Tell him you love him. Act as if you are bonded, and it will happen."

By the time he was 3, I was head over heels in love with him. It absolutely worked. It took some time, but it worked. And I’m so glad about it.

To anyone out there going through something similar, it's ok. It's, unfortunately, more common than you think. But because you feel that way now doesn't mean you will always.

exhaustedoctopus

I once tricked my coworkers in a removal company into thinking I was a supervisor so I could sit idly and order them around instead of working myself.

All it really took was a different-colored company shirt and a keychain with an 'ID card' (just a random white card). Not too much, right?

The owner of the company caught me and promoted me to supervisor because "you already know what to do." I tell this story all the time, and people tend not to believe me, but it's true.

casualfilth

As a kid, I took a beginner-level swimming class but accidentally went to the wrong end of the swimming pool where the more advanced class was about to begin.

The teacher looked at me dubiously (I was obviously shorter and younger than the other students) and asked me to demonstrate the front crawl.

I gamely jumped in and tried crawling in the water, as I had no idea what she was talking about. To my credit, I did not drown or need a rescue. I was asked to rejoin my class. I had the stroke down by the end of the summer.

cazique

It was in an economics class. Really difficult topic (for me), basically focused on all my shortcomings in the field. I knew I was going to flunk the exam and had made my peace with it.

The day we took it, though, I decided to be really funny and to act really confident in how I was going to ace it, mainly to amuse my classmates.

I walked around saying how easy it was going to be and even went from person to person, all worrying about the exam and bragging but also trying to make them relax a little.

It was gonna be so funny when it turned out that I failed the exam miserably. Then, it was time to take the exam. I won't say I didn't at least try to answer the questions reasonably.

But I only wrote one and a half pages, while others wrote upwards of five, and I honestly didn't know what I was talking about for the vast majority of the exam.  

Or so I thought. I had fooled not only my classmates but also myself. We got the results, and I only remember my teacher saying, "Great work! I'm proud of you!"

And I'm sitting there dumbfounded that I somehow got 97%. The second-best result in the class. My only mistake was really stupid wording in one question.

I don't know what sort of hidden knowledge I unlocked that day. In the end, my act of bragging before taking the exam didn't seem funny at all. In the eyes of my classmates, I just seemed like an arse.

[deleted]

My writing career has pretty much been one big case of fake it 'til you make it. A lot of my freelancing gigs came from people I'd worked for in the past.

Then someone will say, 'So we've got this new project, all about [whatever]. Do you know anyone who could give us however-many words in the next month?' and me saying, 'Sure, I can do that, I guess!' Right, I guess…

It was a lot of learning about things as quickly as possible, which made it extremely interesting but gave me weirdly specific knowledge on a bunch of random topics.

When I started writing fiction for a living, it was a bit of a leap of faith: I had no real reason to believe I could actually do it, but I was in a place in my life where I didn't really have a lot going on for me, and I needed to try something new.

My approach was to make it my day job. It didn't matter that no one was buying. It didn't matter that I was new and that I didn't have an audience.

I was going to head to the library every day and pound out as many words as I could until I made it work because that was my job, damn it. It took about six months before I started earning decent money.

Portarossa

I worked at an electronic repair shop. This store specifically took on more difficult repairs and focused heavily on advanced micro-soldering.

When I applied, I completely faked the whole interview, acting like I knew all the terms the owner was talking about. I also acted like I’d been fixing this stuff since I was a kid.

When I was evaluated and trained, I still always acted like I knew exactly what I was doing, even though I didn’t have a clue.

About six months into the job, I actually became a really good technician, based on trial and error and a little guidance from my coworkers. It turns out I had a natural talent for the business.

cjsgamer

My current job is a management position at a call center. It's kind of a weird position, and when I was hired, nobody else here really knew what I was supposed to do.

So, I was more or less plopped into the position with no actual training. I got connected with someone on another site who did the same work.

Still, all he did was direct me to about 30 minutes worth of training material, and that basically just helped me figure out how to open and sign into the various programs I needed to use during the day.

I basically just stumbled through things until I had more or less figured it out. I even got an award for my first quarter working in the position for the improvements my work made to the account. Even now, I still get thrown a curveball every now and then, and I have to push my way through.

Dougboard

Architectural Drafting. When I was 19, I got a job at an Engineering firm. They hired me because I said I knew the software and took classes in high school and 1 class in college. (No degree) I knew literally nothing.

During my first week on the job, my manager could probably tell I didn’t know what I was doing. But I watched YouTube for several hours every night and learned whatever I ran into that day.

After three months, lots of questions, and YouTube, I was doing just as fine as anyone else. I still work in the industry, but now I’m designing electrical plans (I learned that the same way)

jsully12

I faked teaching. I was hired because I'm an engineer in the field that I'm teaching. Nobody expected me to know anything about teaching.

The job ad said that I would get training teaching. 

I started working on a Thursday, and by Monday at 8:15, I was in front of 25 students along with another noob teacher.

It turned out that teacher training normally didn't start in the first year of employment. So I just had to make crap up for a long time.

Jumbobog

I was fairly nerdy and a bit shy all through school and college (UK, roughly equivalent to high school seniors for you US types)

When going to University, I decided I would act mega outgoing, no matter how much it made me cringe or how much I thought I would look like an idiot, how much people would laugh at me, etc.

About two weeks in, I realized that nobody was laughing, nobody thought I was an idiot, and that it was all in my own head. From that moment, I've barely missed a beat.

Yes, I still do stupid things, but I laugh them off, and the people around me laugh with me, not at me.   

Yes, I still worry that I will make a mistake or look like an idiot, but then I remember that nobody cares, and nobody remembers.

Years later, I realized that most people are far too busy worrying that they look like an idiot to notice that you do. And even if they do notice, they forget.

It turns out that being confident is literally nothing more than acting confident until you realize you are worrying about nothing. Confident people are just those who've realized that.

audigex

I faked being a good student. All through high school, I would be that person who everyone knew was smart but didn't have the grades to show for it.

I did well on standardized tests and APs but had a crap GPA. Got into a mediocre college. After the first quarter and getting dumped by all my friends at school, I decided that I would show them my being successful.

I got an internship that I was qualified for the next summer, which led to another internship this past summer, for which I was even less qualified.

I graduated magna cum lade on the president's list with glowing recommendations from my professors. I network and have business cards.

All of this led me to get a fully funded Master's at an R1 that is extremely well respected in my field. I'm still a lazy piece of crap, though, and I'm scared that, eventually, I'm going to stop being able to fake it.

westofblue

When I was younger, I used to randomly apply for jobs out of curiosity. Worked at a ton of places. Junkyard, machine shop, security at a porn store, etc.

Well, one job I applied for was an analytical position at a small insurance company. I have absolutely zero experience in any office setting except a call center and was not qualified for the job.

My resume was 100% lies. I even made up the name of the college. Well, they hired me. The place was so disorganized that I essentially just kind of talked my way into it.

The people interviewing me didn't even know what position it was for. They paid me $60,000 a year. Three times what I had ever made.

I was 19 and absolutely rolling in money. I even had a little office. I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing, so I just kind of flew under the radar.

My parents thought it was hilarious. I was literally making as much money as my dad, who was a metallurgical engineer. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

A larger company bought us out, mined the company, and fired everyone. I stole a couple of laptops on my way out. One of the guys I worked with talked someone into giving him one of the company cars, a super nice BMW.

Goyteamsix

I “invented” every higher-up position I’ve had up till now. Started in the call center, went to OM, and said, “I’d like to help with the Christmas party.”

I hung out with admin assistants during my off time to plan, but it led to them doing other things, as well as me watching and asking questions.

Went back to OM and said, “I’ve learned how to do blank. Can I do blank?” “What if I combined blank and blank?”

I created an incentive program, returned to OM and showed my work, became in charge of that, and was given a planning committee for any event/contest/employee morale.  

Half the time, I didn’t know what I was doing, but just by being sneaky, I figured out how to create things they needed. This is just an example.

I’ve done it with three jobs and have gotten awesome experiences, knowledge, and pay from just bugging people because I’m bored.

Wonderlandwalking

Honestly, being happy and social. Going into high school, I was in a super bad place. I was treated very poorly throughout elementary and middle school and essentially was a social outcast for a long while.

In order to make friends, I faked being a social and outgoing person since I had a fresh start with different people.   

I felt like I needed to do it to end my cycle.

Now, that’s the way I am: very social, friendly, and willing to talk to anyone. Coming out of that shell is tricky, but you will get there eventually.

TooFarFromComfort

Well, when I was 16, I managed to fake being sick enough to fool a doctor. It was the end of the year, finals week. I had failed three classes and was also at risk of failing philosophy.

The day of the exam arrived, and I woke up late and started to panic. As I run to school, I'm already making up a story about how I woke up feeling sick, which is the usual stuff. They say I can only do the exam if I show up with a doctor's note on the same day.

Instead of panicking even harder, I don't even go home and instead walk straight to a kind of mini-hospital (I dunno what to call it in English, sorry) close to home. After one hour of walking, I found out I could only see a doctor for free if I had a partner card, which I didn't have.

After another 2 hours to get home, get the documents, and make a Partner card, I waited another hour in line to see a doctor.

When my turn arrived, I had already crafted (what I thought was) a master-level narrative of how I woke up with explosive diarrhea, possibly from eating at a burger place the night before.

It wasn't hard to fake a sick-looking face. I was very scrawny and hadn't eaten all day at that point. She even measured my blood pressure and confirmed it was awfully low.

In the end, she gave me the note, prescribed some medicine, and I took the exam two days later. Passed all the other classes as well. Still one of my proudest moments.

Elriidh

I was desperate for a job and acted like I had six years of experience in low voltage and IT work. I YouTubed loads of stuff and went out my first week with a journeyman.

Then, they sent me out on my own. He felt comfortable that I knew what I was doing. I now have four years of actual low-voltage work and still do it to this day.

Making a load of money now, too. No college degree no experience except in completely different industries. It really goes to show how much you can fake your way into anything.

Now. I will say I'm pretty sure one of the veteran guys knew that I was winging it as he helped all the time over the phone with troubleshooting and whatnot, and he never said anything to management.

In the end, my thought process was, what's the worst that's going to happen? They figure out I don't know anything and fire me. I'm embarrassed for a few minutes as I walk out the door and never see any of them again, so who cares?

I suppose, since they are somewhat reputable, they could have warned other employers, but at the time, not being able to pay rent or afford food, I didn't give a darn.

Zephead223

The marketing manager left the company I worked for. As the youngest person on staff, management asked if I knew digital marketing and could maintain the website.

I said, "Oh yeah, I know all about that!" Knowing absolutely nothing, I proceeded to Google everything, including SEO, paid search, HTML, etc.

Fast forward 10 years, and I am the VP of a prominent digital advertising company and responsible for recording high revenue for the company! I keep up with industry trends and look to see how I can better understand technology.

Mankzy

I was kicked out of college in 2008 and was desperate for a job. I ended up almost entirely lying my arse off on my resume to get an interview at an apartment property for a maintenance tech.

I didn’t even know how to swing a hammer, but I was desperate. I would go to fix something and hide in a closet, watching YouTube videos until I could figure it out.

After a while, I discovered that I really enjoyed repairing appliances and was good at it.     

Eventually, I learned a bit and used that to get another job, learn a bit more, get another, etc.

Fast forward 11 years, and now I’m certified in HVAC and appliance repair and have a fantastic job in nonprofit housing in a field I never knew I could even do. Sometimes, you have to do what it takes to succeed. No regrets.

Steppyjim

I quit my job and road-tripped all of North America over 4 months to finally end up on the West Coast. I had never been to California before, and it just felt like this was where I wanted to live.

I was supposed to go back to Michigan, but every day, I'd wake up and say to myself, let's stay another day (because it was amazing).

I started going to events, socializing, and making new friends. Upon being asked, I'd say I live here every time. I got to the point where I made really good friends.

New friends who are closer than the ones I had back home., I started interviewing, landed a sweet job, moved here for real, and never ended up going back!

hiftikha

I always liked cars. I also happened to like guys who were into cars, so you can see where this is gonna go... in reality, I was the stereotypical chick who knew nothing. I sucked.

I would lie and talk out my arse, quoting things from my dad or brother I saw on tv shows & movies & regurgitating anything any other “car dudes” said to me.

Well, this paid off. I listened so much, trying to memorize things, that I started to pick up on what was actually being said. I started learning when watching TV shows, not just kind of haphazardly listening to them.

I started working on my own car with my Dad. Fast forward a few years later, I get hired by a tire shop for a busy season & walk into the shop with my basic minimal skills.

I end up being able to do the stuff, surprisingly learning quickly and doing it well. I can change an entire car tire, on the rim, off the rim, to on the rim & balance & back on your car in 45 minutes. Power tools were scary, but now I love them.

This summer, my thermostat broke & water outlet housing gasket seal in my Mazda 3, with a shifted engine, which meant taking apart those horrible awful bolts from hell & lifting my engine.

I can honestly say I fixed them myself! I mean, with the help of a dozen youtube channels (thank you, Faye, Hadley & a1 auto, holy crap), but I did it.

So, faking it til I made it really did work, and now I can help diagnose and fix other cars, not just my own, genuinely without lying.

drjallz

You had to do a swim qualification when I was in Marine Boot Camp. You jumped off a high board, floated, and had to swim half the length of the pool to get the lowest qualification.

I did a good job going off the high board and the floating. However, I touched the bottom of the pool while I was swimming.

We were told that if we failed, to walk right back to the locker room and not check in at the desk. As I walked past the desk, the DI said, "Hey, numb nuts, you passed. You check in with me."

So I checked in, and I did Swim Qual Day 2 the next day. This was a little more advanced... I failed it immediately. That was the end of lying.

As I walked back, the same guy said, "You must be stupid. Let me guess, infantry? Check-in, dumbass, so I can put you in for swim qual 3. So I checked in. I went all the way to swim qual 4 without ever passing swim qual 1.

MancetheLance

At a wedding for which I was an organist, I realized after I started playing prelude music (before the ceremony) that I had left the Processional sheet music home on the piano.

With one hand on my organ and another on the phone, I called my S/O and asked to have the processional music delivered immediately.

I kept stretching out the time, even asking the ushers to delay a little while I improvised. The music arrived at the last possible moment, and off we went with the wedding Processional, as planned.

[deleted]

I am a massive introvert, and I never wanted a job in retail if I could avoid it. I know nothing about fashion. Still, I needed a job to pay the rent a little while ago.

The only place that gave me an interview was a clothes shop in the high street near me. I put on a big smile, mentally gathered everything I could remember my mum saying about clothes throughout my life, and headed for the interview.

I got the job, and after over a year of pretending I gave a monkey's fart about customer service and fashion, I can now quite confidently take care of a small team of newer sales assistants. I know what I'm talking about regarding this season's hottest colors.

NellyNotTheElephant

I once took on a temping job for one of the largest banks in the country. The problem was, within a day of being there, I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was meant to be doing.

By the time the training was over (standard anti-money-laundering crime prevention, etc.) I felt I was too far in to ask what my job title was or what other people were doing, so I sat there and pretended to work.

This was made easier by the fact that everyone in the office was very standoffish; no one really came and spoke to me or responded much when I went in to initiate conversation, so I was left to it.

I would spend 9-5 putting figures onto an Excel sheet (I knew I had to do that). Otherwise, I sat there and pretended to type as no one could see my screen.

8 hours of bashing the keys with no internet. They offered me a permanent contract, but I declined. Now I think of it. I didn't make it at all in that job; it's my bad.

[deleted]

Turning sarcasm from a defense mechanism into genuine confidence. It started off when I was a shy and socially-lacking new kid in 8th grade.

My mother home-schooled me until the 8th grade, at which time I was then sent to a tiny (read: 13 kids in my entire grade) catholic middle school.

Adjusting to social life was difficult for me. It didn't help that I was pretty chubby as well.

 Eventually, I learned that an effective way of dealing with getting poked fun was by using sarcasm.

I developed a very sarcastic sense of humor and applied it to myself. It turned into a sense of "fake self-confidence," where I could joke about myself.

I can fake being a more confident or attractive person than I actually thought I was. As time went by, it turned into reality.

captain_carrot

In 4th grade, I moved from the UK to the US. About a week into my new school, we had a long-division contest in our class. As shy as I was, I didn't want to tell the teacher (Ms. Hickey) that I didn't know long division.

We did it in March Madness-style. Everyone was put in a bracket. I got to watch other people go first. I watched what they did to see if I could learn it.

I didn't know what was going on. I noticed some patterns, I guess. I saw some of the same numbers popping up. So when I got up, I did what I saw another boy do.

I guessed the numbers to put under the division symbol and gave it a random remainder number. I won my round.... and got it completely right.

The next round went the same. By round 3, I figured out what was actually going on because she had gone through several problems.

The last two rounds were easy, I guess. Never in my life did I feel so random. I literally was writing anything down randomly, and I worked.

slopnessie

This is my question. So, in the 7th and 8th grade, I "played" the flute. I put played in quotations cause I don't know how to play the flute. I moved my fingers really pretty well, and it didn't cause a problem.

This gets even better cause the band teacher did little exams. The term saved by the bell has never applied better than to me. The bell rang every time it was my turn, and he forgot to continue the exam until he restarted the next time.

We went to a freaking contest where professionals judged us. Didn’t notice the dude who didn't do anything in his row. I did this for 2 years.

For 2 years, I faked it in front of a dude who had anger issues and had been doing the band for like a dozen years. The dude never caught on.

theladyfromthesky

My cooking career. I love to cook and started teaching myself at home about 5 years ago. I lived in Philly at the time and met a guy who had recently opened a restaurant.

I liked the vibe of the place, so I kept showing up until they hired me. Started as a server assistant (busser). I worked my way up to the server and then assisted the front-of-house manager.

I was always closer to the kitchen crew and would call the chef on my days off for cooking tips. Fast forward a bit, and I got a job at a deli, grocery, and restaurant in my hometown.

My sister knew the owner. I started in the deli but eventually asked to work in the kitchen. It was a casual concept, but the owner and sous chef both came from one of the top fine-dining restaurants in my city.

I was working the grill/fry station. My first night ever in a professional kitchen was a Friday night. I made about 40 fish fries, lots of burgers, NY strips, and even some racks of lamb and grilled salmon.

I moved from there to a fine dining restaurant where I worked at an insanely busy grill station. Over the past 4 years, I've worked in a handful of places. Each new experience was something that I'd never done before.  

Still, the beauty of the restaurant business is it helps build a weird type of confidence. Sure, it's just cooking food for people.

Still, you get in situations that seem completely impossible, push yourself to your physical, mental, and emotional limits, and somehow come out the other side with plenty of energy to go get hammered and do it again the next day, hungover as heck.

Now, I'm the Sous Chef of a new place that opens in a few weeks. The owner and I are putting the final touches on the menu, sorting out vendors, and hiring the last few staff members. I'm pretty excited. I hadn't thought of this as a "fake it until you make it" story until now.

nihongojoe

In my first year of high school, I landed a major role in a regional Shakespeare competition. At first, I didn't know how to handle it.

My teacher introduced me to the works of an actor called Steven Berkoff. A talented actor with a god complex that would overshadow a good actor.

I studied his tapes until I could memorize his method. When I walked out on stage, I just performed my best Steven Berkoff impersonation.

That performance won the regionals, and I was awarded an honorable mention at the nationals. From there, I became pretty successful in other productions.

I would mostly build performances based on various performances I'd seen. I learned to just commit to that, and the understanding of it followed afterward.

[deleted]

I was in the military with a new unit- someone's family catered a meal. The meat looked disgusting, so I asked for no meat, and when they asked why, I said I was a vegetarian.

I ended up answering a million questions about my diet and why I don't eat meat at dinner.... but I definitely was not vegetarian and had to make up a good story on the fly.

Unfortunately, I had joined that unit to deploy and had to spend the next year eating rice and salad and cheese sandwiches because I was known as a vegetarian, even though all I wanted was a big ass burger.

Got back home and realized I couldn't stand the smell of meat anymore, so I just stuck with the veggie diet, and here we are 6 years later!

Now, I do it for the animals and for health benefits, but at the time, I did it because the meat was grey and looked slimy. I've never had to commit to something SO HARD.

the_midnight_rider

I'm in my late 20s and still don't have my driver's license. While I was working on a commercial fishing boat with my cousin (think Deadliest Catch style fishing), he had me drive the boat.

This was not something he'd told me he expected me to do... obviously I was a little nervous about it. And when you drive a boat, you have no visibility at night; it's just the sonar technology telling you if there's another boat nearby.

It's scary. 

I freaked out, at which my cousin ran out of the cabin while he was sleeping, all pissed off, telling me I was "hysterical" and how was this so hard... don't I have my driver's license?

Well, it's totally different from the few times I HAVE driven a car with my learner's permit. But I told him no, I hadn't. That part surprised him...

But by the second night, I was a pro at it. It was my favorite part of the job since working for hours reeling in massive nets and cutting/gutting/stacking fish while in head-to-toe rubber kinda wears on you after a while.

Reaper_of_Souls

I faked my way through most of high school. I had a natural talent for English and writing, so in my sophomore year, I began skimming through books in my school's library, getting the bare minimum of plot synopsis.

Then, I took the Accelerated Reader tests on each one in the computer lab. I passed most of them fairly easily, especially once I established a cataloging system for the simple books.

I was able to set a district record for the number of books "read" and tests passed in a single school year (133) that still stands, as far as I know.

These tests counted as Lit I and II credits, so I did nothing in those classes and passed. I also won the $100 prize for being #1 in the AR program at the end of the school year. I did this for 3 years in a row.

In my junior year, I was being pestered by a teacher to join the FBLA. To get her off my back, I wrote an essay that was 100% pseudo-inspirational crap on business ethics with absolutely no depth and submitted it.

You were required to write an essay to join, but that paper got me elected president. I held the position until I graduated, doing absolutely nothing.

I crap out so many bootlicking book reports, essays, and speeches that I developed a knack for knowing exactly what teachers wanted to see and weaponized it to the point that I won a journalism competition at the local college when I was still a junior in high school.

On the back of that paper, I plagiarized from myself, having used the same idea with a slightly different structure and small wording changes on three different occasions.

While I was there accepting the award, I saw a flier for a website design contest being held at the same college. Knowing nothing about coding (and this was only in 2003), I built a crappy Tripod site in a day.

I used JPEG banners I created in Macromedia Flash to look like fancy link tables with artsy backing. It was a total cardboard front of a site that looked pretty but didn't serve any function at all.

Somehow, I won first place, proceeded to the state competition, and came in 2nd. To this day, I have no idea what kind of crack the judges were smoking.

I stopped going so hard in adulthood, though 3 of my jobs as an adult were attained with a 100% fake resume and were in fields I had zero experience in. One of those jobs lasted four years.

KingBadford

I applied for and got a highly technical job at a university during my first semester of graduate school in the same field.

I had ten years of experience in a related field prior to my current job, but I had zero experience using most of the software programs needed for daily tasks.

In my first six months, my boss would give me jobs and projects to work on, and I’d say, “Sure,” and then go back to my office and Google how to execute each job/project.

It took the same amount of time to get good at using each program, so I’d say I’ve done pretty well. My boss lets me know how impressed he is at my performance reviews. I’m interviewing for a higher position in the same field two years after starting.

Bobcatluv

I got a job as a substitute teacher while working on my education degree. After my first day, I was offered a long-term position at the same school for the rest of the school year.

I came to that class with no lesson plans, materials, or real experience. 

The plan was to just go in and pretend I had the confidence to back up my authority, and somehow, it worked.

By the end of the year, the faculty and students loved me. I even got offered the job I was filling in but had to decline because I didn’t have the proper certifications, etc.

kevinisgood

My current job. I was hired for an entry-level role, but due to some internal drama and developments, I was promoted four times in a few months and led a team of 10+ people with more experience than me.

Whenever something needed to be done, I would Google it or check other internal docs for ideas and try to replicate and improve.

The first few months were crazy, but over a year later, I felt pretty comfortable with my responsibilities. My boss hired a mentor for me to learn from, so it's going much better. However, I am still being paid about two promotions behind my current responsibilities.

Bropps85

In 7th grade, we all chose different books to give reports on at the end of the quarter. I chose 'The Hobbit', underestimating how boring it actually was.

We had to explain how the book related to our class theme of 'Identity.' It was the night before the report, and I hadn't finished the book. I quickly looked up a Sparks Notes version and memorized it.

Time for the report, I had no idea what to say. I don't even remember what I said. Still, I used my knowledge of the summary and had to make up stuff here and there, and overall put on a very confident facade, even though I was panicking inside.

What do you know, I got a perfect score on the report. It doesn't matter how good your content is. At the end of the day, confidence speaks louder than actually being knowledgeable.

HauntingRange