Application form is not Instagram, Nagaland Staff Selection Board tells aspirants

DIMAPUR — If your passport photo needs a filter, a scenic background and 400% zoom to recognise you, the Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) is not impressed.

In a strongly-worded yet witty advisory on its Instagram account, titled “Aspirants, we need to talk,” the NSSB has called out candidates for uploading improper passport photographs and signatures with their online applications, saying that it is an ‘official application for serious examination and not the place to experiment with photography or signatures’.

Since uploading this advisory on its Instagram handle, the post has received more than thousand shares and likes.

“Passport photo means passport photo. Not a wedding photo. Not a selfie from your best angle. Not a group photo cropped until only your face survived,” the Board stated, advising candidates to upload ‘just a proper passport photo’.

It said some applicants upload re-photographed passport photos, blurred images and group photos with only the face remaining, while others upload signatures covering half the page, the entire notebook or photographed from across the room under bad lighting with shadows.

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“The application form is not Instagram. You do not need filters, dramatic angles, scenic backgrounds or creative cropping. We are processing an examination application, not selecting your profile picture,” it said.

The board warned that an incorrect, unclear or badly cropped upload may seem like a small thing but could result in the cancellation of a candidate’s candidature during verification.