How to Scan Job Application Documents: 6 Steps to Help You Out

The ability to properly present your professional competencies to a potential employer through your CV, resume, and other relevant documents has become an ultimate skill. This is especially true at the very first stage of applying for a job, when first impressions are formed before you even speak to a recruiter. In this guide, you’ll learn how to scan job application documents so their professional-looking appearance can increase your chances.

Why Making a Good-Looking Scan Matters

When you apply for a job, the decision doesn’t depend on your skills and experience only. Your documents matter too. And it’s not just about accurately describing your duties in your CV or career path in a cover letter. The way your documents look, their size, and format also play a role.

Recruiters spend about 7 seconds on average when they check a resume for the first time, and if it’s cluttered or unclear, it can cost you opportunities. To make everything professional, you need to know how to create a high-quality scan of your hard copies.

What Employment Documents to Submit

The list of documents is usually mentioned in the job description, but the most common include:

• Cover letter. A short document that describes your motivation, strengths, and experience relevant to the position.
• CV. A very structured summary of your education, work experience, skills, and accomplishments. It should also contain your contact details and a photo.
• Certificates. Copies of school, training, or university certificates and transcripts.
• Letters of recommendation. Documents describing your skills and work ethic, written by people you have worked with. 
• Samples of your work. These include portfolios, reports, presentations, published articles, and any other examples that provide practical proof of your abilities.

How to Scan Job Application Documents

Here’s how to make a perfect copy of your documents in six steps:

Step 1. Find a capable mobile scanner. 

Mobile scanners provide the quality needed for job application documents and are much more convenient and flexible than standard scanners. Some of them also offer additional editing and enhancement features, some of which are particularly useful when fine-tuning your CV or resume. We’ll talk about them in detail soon.

Anyway, these are the key features of a mobile tool needed for scanning job application documents:

• Resolution of 300 dpi minimum. Lower resolutions can result in pixelated, unprofessional-looking scans.
• Export in PDF. Your scan should be saved and exported as a PDF, as this format preserves the layout and structure of your documents on any device.
• Multi-page scanning. This feature quickly combines multiple pages into a single file.
• Proficient OCR technology. Optical character recognition makes your document searchable and editable.
• Image enhancement. Allows you to improve the quality of your scans.
• Easy sharing options.
• Privacy. As CVs, cover letters, certificates, and other application documents contain sensitive information, it’s important to have full control over what you scan and how you share.

There are dozens of scanning apps available, but one option that meets all the criteria is iScanner. It’s a mix of a mobile scanner and PDF editor, which makes it capable of solving practically any document-related task.

Step 2. Scan your documents.

Find a place with proper lighting that’s easily accessible so your phone can be positioned parallel to the document you’re scanning. If you need to scan in imperfect conditions, like on the road, don’t worry—you’ll still be able to fix even imperfect copies later.

To start scanning with iScanner:

1. Open the app (you can download it for both iOS and Android).
2. Tap Plus—Camera.
3. Choose a resolution of 300+ dpi. 
4. Point the camera at your document. The app will automatically detect its borders and snap it. If it’s a multi-page document, switch pages and repeat the process.
5. Tap the image of your scan at the bottom left when you’re done scanning.

Step 3. Enhance your scans.

Congrats! You’ve scanned your documents. Now, it’s time to make them look perfect.

When you tap the image of your scan in the bottom left, you’ll be taken to the enhancement screen. Here, you can improve and edit your scans in any way you need.

• Crop it manually if you aren’t satisfied with the result.
• Apply filters (black & white, grayscale, office, and more).
• Rotate it.
• Change its size (A4, A5, business card, etc.).
• Improve its quality if the original was distorted, taken in poor lighting, or somehow negatively affected by other conditions. You can straighten your scan, remove fingers if they appear in the frame, restore folded or cropped edges, sharpen the details with the deblur function, and improve brightness and contrast with the Polish tool.

Click Done when you’re finished.

Pro Tip: If you want to apply all quality improvements at once, tap the AI Magic button. It automatically enhances your scan straight away.

Step 4. Name your files properly.

Your scans look perfect now, which means half the job is done! This next step seems pretty obvious and easy, but it’s no less important.

Descriptive file names will make it easier for recruiters to navigate your application. So, instead of “March 12” or “version_3a_final,” it’s better to use something like “John_Smith_CV.”

There are two ways to do this in iScanner: by editing the name manually, or by using the AI-powered Smart Naming feature, which automatically generates clear file names based on their content.

Step 5. Share your job application documents.

Now your documents are ready to be submitted, and you can do this straight from the app. Here’s how:

1. Tap My Files in the main menu.
2. Tap three dots to the right of the file you want to share to open the dropdown menu. If you need to send multiple files, tap the Checkmark button in the top-right corner and select the documents that should be sent together.
3. Tap Share.
4. Choose your file format. It’s a PDF by default.
5. You can also reduce the size of your documents (the Reduce Size switch) and send it as a ZIP archive (the Create ZIP Archive switch).
6. If needed, you can create a password to protect your shared file.
7. Tap Send File to share it the way you’d like.

Step 6 (optional). Update scanned documents

If you need to adjust your CV or recommendation letter for another position or company, there’s no need to repeat the whole process. In iScanner, you can update already scanned documents and add the necessary information directly in the app.

To do this, find the file in My Files and open it. There you can:

• E-sign the document
• Add text and images
• Hide parts of the document (for instance, if it contains sensitive information)
• Mark up the document
• Blur parts of your scan
• Add watermarks
• Add or change the footer
• Add or update page numbering