Get these ready before you start any online application form

Most online application forms time out somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes, and almost nobody has their documents ready when they start. The result is a half-filled form, an expired session, and a fee paid twice. Spend an hour once, keep everything in one folder, and every application after that takes ten minutes.

The folder

Make one folder — on your phone, in your email drafts, anywhere you can reach in a hurry — and keep these in it. Name each file clearly, because you will be picking from a list on a small screen under time pressure.

Photograph

Nearly every portal wants a recent passport-style colour photograph as a JPEG, typically between 20 KB and 50 KB, on a plain light background, with your face taking up most of the frame and both ears visible. Many now also require the date of the photograph, or a handwritten name and date, printed below the image — read the notification, because this one varies and a rejected photo means a rejected form.

Practical advice: get it taken professionally once and ask for the digital file, not just prints. Keep a full-size copy and a compressed copy, because size limits differ between portals.

Signature

Sign in black ink on white paper, photograph or scan it, and crop tightly. Usually wanted as a JPEG of roughly 10 KB to 20 KB. Sign the way you always sign — a signature that does not match your documents causes problems later, at document verification, when it is much harder to fix.

Identity and address

• Aadhaar — increasingly the default identifier on recruitment portals.
• PAN — needed wherever a payment or an appointment follows.
• A second photo ID if you have one: passport, driving licence, voter ID.

Education

• Class 10 certificate — this is the document that proves your date of birth for most recruitments, not your Aadhaar.
• Class 12 marksheet and certificate.
• Degree certificate and all semester or year marksheets.
• Diploma, ITI or professional certificates where they apply.

Know your aggregate percentage before you start. Many forms ask for it to two decimal places and will not let you continue with a guess.

Category and other certificates

Where they apply: caste certificate in the prescribed central or state format, EWS certificate (usually valid for the financial year only — check the date), PwD certificate, ex-servicemen discharge documents, and any domicile certificate a state recruitment asks for. The format matters as much as the certificate: a state-format certificate is not always accepted for a central recruitment.

Scanning: the part people get wrong

• Scan or photograph in good, even daylight. No flash, no shadow across the page.
• Keep the document square to the frame and crop to the edges.
• Save as JPEG for photos and signatures, PDF for certificates, unless told otherwise.
• Compress after scanning at good quality, not by taking a poor photo. Keep the original.
• Check every file opens and is readable at full size before you upload it.

Before you press submit

• Read the eligibility clause again, particularly the age limit and the cut-off date it is measured from. Age is calculated on a specific date stated in the notification, not on the day you apply.
• Check your name, your father's or mother's name and your date of birth against your Class 10 certificate, character for character.
• Save or screenshot the confirmation page and the registration number. Print the final form if a print option is offered.
• Keep the payment reference. If the fee is deducted but the form does not confirm, that reference is the only thing that will get it resolved.

Do not leave it to the last day

Recruitment portals fall over in the final forty-eight hours, every single time, because a large share of applicants arrive at once. Deadline extensions happen but are never promised. Apply in the first week and the whole thing is uneventful.