You don't want to lie, that will just get you in trouble in the long run. But you do want to show what you've learned from work and life experiences and how you would apply that background to the job.
Somebody did an awesome job of that when circulating the resume you see in this post. (Click on it and make it bigger and more readable)
As you can see, he was an entrepreneur, but in the pot business. Still, it prepared him for the world of legitimate work, at least according to his resume:
He notes he had "an intuitive understanding of supply and demand economics."
True, that, if you're dealing with highly popular pot.
He said he was good with money, had his own delivery service and had a "consistent clientele with high customer satisfaction."
On that last part, it's unclear whether his customers were highly satisfied or just high, but you get the picture.
Judging from the applicant's more recent job history, he went straight, and seemed to get himself into more legitimate lines of work. And it looks like his pot dealing days helped him do well at his conventional jobs.
Frankly, I hope this guy got hired. If I was looking for an employee, I would seriously consider this dude.
