Fake it till you make it. That’s what everyone else does.

Welcome to the teeter totter of employment. Best you can do is be 100% honest about your situation and hope they are looking for that more than a sheepskin

But you DO have a PhD. Claiming it is somehow not valid is a criticism of the establishment that awarded it to you. You're just suffering from impostor syndrome, that's all.

Also, no employer will consider someone fresh out of education, even someone with a PhD, to have vast quantitites of useful real-world experience, so even declaring a PhD won't see you land your first job with the expectations that you'll ace every bit of it from day one.

It's good that you realise you know nothing. That is both accurate and useful. But don't take it too far. What your PhD proves is that you have an ability to learn, understand and communicate, and THAT is what employers are looking for.

I feel like you all are misplaying your hands. Find contractors that work for the govt.

They can bill the govt much higher rates because you have a PhD. They don't have to pay you the extra. You could literally tell them that. Pay me at a junior rate and keep the difference until I prove I'm worth more.

You'd be straight revenue/profit for them. and it gets your foot in the door and you start getting actual experience.

Say you spent it working in McDonald’s. They won’t bother checking.

🤣

Just... Say that you have a bachelor's degree and that's it? You really have it anyway for fuck's sake!

My advice for anyone in a similar situation is to go for a job in a different field.
Tell them that you reached the goals you had set for yourself in your previous field (PhD, published peer reviewed works etc). Tell them that you feel it is time for you to explore other fields and that you have an affinity with the one you're applying in. Then tell them the most important thing you learned during your previous endeavors: you have the capacity to learn and adapt