DW_a_mom wrote:
I'd be more for re-coloring the truth. If you are fast and concise in packing a suitcase, for example, that might show good skills for an assembly line. And so on. Mom's go through this all the time when they try to go back to work after being "home" for years. What skills do they have? PLENTY. Multi-tasking, organization, diplomacy, and so on. Take a look at what you are good at in real life, that you have done, and see how it fits in with the skills needed for the job.
It is still "making it up" though.
It makes sense to require a degree to be a doctor but not for many other jobs. It's important to know how to work a computer when going for a secretarial job (and typing speed is important too) but it doesn't matter if you've got Word 97, 2003 or OpenOffice experience. You can easily figure out how to move from one system to another.
Don't admit to lacking experience - you can be sure that none of the other candidates have.
I used to only go for jobs if I had every single bit of experience requested. My current (10 years) job was like that. During the interview I was asked why I was the only candidate who had all the experience (most only had 50% of the required experience) and I couldn't answer. I'm sure the CEO thought that I was lying about my experience. Now I know better, it was the OCD comorbid or my aspergers that was talking.