I am actually having nightmares about this.
A combination of maternity leave and redundancy meant I took 4 years off when my dd was born. I've recently been self-employed, but not making any money, so am back to looking for a "proper" job.
I've been applying for things left, right and centre and not getting anywhere, but this week I've found 3 really interesting, decent paid, not too far from where I live jobs...but they all have application forms. For some reason, I have a mental block when it comes to filling these in and have now been staring at the first of the three for the last 3 days with mounting anxiety that, although I am confident I have the skills and experience to do the job, what I write on the form is going to mean that I don't get an interview. When I know what's expected of me I can do it fine, but here I don't know whether they want a cut and paste of all the words in the person spec and job description, or a patchwork of all the little bits and pieces I've done over the years that means I feel I could do the job. It's basically admin/website maintenance/event planning, all of which I've done, in the framework of other not very high-powered jobs...Any tips for giving them what they're looking for?