Before you write
- Send it to the right person. Use the address in the job post. If there is a named contact, address them by name. For unsolicited applications, find the hiring manager or recruiter on the company site or LinkedIn rather than writing to info@.
- Send it from a professional address: firstname.lastname@gmail.com or similar. Not a college nickname, and not your current work email.
- Read the post's instructions. If it asks for a particular subject line, a job code, a cover letter or a salary expectation, include exactly that. Failing to follow instructions is a common reason applications are skipped.
- Have your resume ready as a PDF with a sensible file name. More on attachments below.
Subject lines that get opened
The subject line should tell the recruiter, without opening the email, what it is and which job it is for. Include the job title, your name, and the job code if there is one.
- Application for Data Analyst (Job ID 4471) – Aditi Rao
- Staff Accountant application – Accounting graduate 2026 – Ryan Kim
- Referred by Priya Shah – Application for Senior Java Developer
- Summer Internship 2027, Marketing – Neha Gupta, Business sophomore
- Experienced Staff Nurse (ICU, 5 years) – interest in open positions
- Following up: Data Analyst application – Aditi Rao
Avoid vague subjects (“Resume”, “Job”, “Hi”), all capitals, and anything that sounds like marketing (“Your next star employee!”).
What goes in the email
A job application email is a shorter cover letter: four short paragraphs at most, readable in under a minute.
- Greeting: “Dear Ms. Carter,” if you know the name; “Dear Hiring Manager,” if you don't. Avoid “Dear Sir/Madam” where you can find a name.
- Opening: the job you are applying for and where you saw it.
- Why you fit: two or three sentences with your most relevant experience and one result.
- Close: what you have attached, your availability, and a thank you.
- Signature: full name, phone with country code, LinkedIn or portfolio link.
Paste the full cover letter into the email body only if the post asks for one and doesn't say to attach it. Otherwise keep the email short and attach the cover letter as a second PDF. Our guide on how to write a cover letter covers the longer version.
Job application email templates
Copy the one closest to your situation and change every detail. The bracketed parts are the ones you must replace.
Subject: Application for Data Analyst (Job ID 4471) – Aditi Rao Dear Ms. Carter, I'm applying for the Data Analyst role in your Customer Insights team, posted on your careers page. I have three years of analytics experience at Kreditly, a Chicago lending startup, where I write SQL daily and built the Power BI collections dashboard the operations team now runs on. My A/B tests on reminder messages raised on-time payments by 6% across 40,000 borrowers. My resume and a short cover letter are attached. I can start two weeks after an offer and am happy to talk any weekday after 5 pm. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, Aditi Rao (312) 555-0148 · linkedin.com/in/aditirao
Subject: Staff Accountant application – Accounting graduate 2026 – Ryan Kim Dear Hiring Manager, I'd like to apply for the Staff Accountant position at [Company] that I saw on [LinkedIn / Indeed / your website]. I graduated from [University] this May with a BS in Accounting and a 3.5 GPA. During a busy-season internship at a CPA firm, I handled vendor payments and reconciled accounts for 20 small-business clients in QuickBooks, and helped prepare their tax returns. I've attached my resume. I can start immediately and would be glad to come in for an interview or a skills test at your convenience. Thank you, Ryan Kim (404) 555-0117 · ryan.kim@gmail.com
Applying in India? Use the same shape with your degree and percentage, Tally and GST in place of QuickBooks, and “I can join immediately” if you can.
Subject: Referred by Priya Shah – Application for Senior Java Developer Dear Mr. Menon, Priya Shah from your payments team suggested I write to you about the Senior Java Developer opening. We worked together at [Previous Company] for two years. I have six years of backend experience in Java and Spring Boot, most recently leading the move of 12 payment services to Kubernetes on AWS, which cut deployment time from two hours to fifteen minutes. My resume is attached. I'd welcome a short call to learn more about the team's plans. Best regards, [Your name] [Phone] · [LinkedIn]
Subject: Summer Internship 2027, Marketing – Neha Gupta, BBA 2nd year Dear [Name], I'm a sophomore business student at [University] and would like to apply for a summer marketing internship at [Company] between June and August 2027. I run the Instagram page for our campus entrepreneurship club, which grew from 900 to 4,100 followers this year, and I recently completed the Google Ads Search certification. I'd love to learn how a consumer brand like yours plans campaigns. My resume is attached. Thank you for considering my application. Regards, Neha Gupta [Phone] · [Email]
Subject: Experienced Staff Nurse (ICU, 5 years) – interest in open positions Dear [Name], I'm an ICU staff nurse with five years at a 500-bed hospital in Houston, relocating to Denver in January. I'm writing to ask whether your critical care unit expects any openings in the coming months. I'm experienced with ventilated patients, central lines and new-graduate preceptorship, and I hold current BLS and ACLS certifications. I've attached my resume and would be grateful for the chance to talk, even briefly. Thank you, [Your name] [Phone] · [Email]
Subject: Following up: Data Analyst application – Aditi Rao Dear Ms. Carter, I applied for the Data Analyst role (Job ID 4471) on November 3 and wanted to check whether you need anything else from me. I'm still very interested in the role and the work your team is doing on churn. I've reattached my resume for convenience. Thank you again for your time. Kind regards, Aditi Rao (312) 555-0148
For longer, job-specific letters, see our cover letter examples, including the fresher and internship versions.
Attaching your resume
- Send a PDF, unless the post asks for Word. A PDF looks the same on every device; a Word file can reflow and lose its layout.
- Name the file properly: Aditi-Rao-Resume.pdf, or Aditi-Rao-Resume-Data-Analyst.pdf. Not resume_final_v3(1).pdf.
- Keep it small. A text-based resume PDF is usually well under 1 MB. If yours is several megabytes, a large image is probably inside it.
- Attach, don't link, for the resume itself. Recruiters may not click a Google Drive link, and sharing permissions often break. Links are fine for a portfolio or GitHub.
- Check it's attached before you press send. “Please find my resume attached” with no attachment is the most common application email mistake.
Before you send, upload your resume and the job post to the free ATS checker. Many companies forward emailed resumes into the same applicant tracking system as portal applications, so the same keywords matter.
Mistakes that get application emails ignored
- An empty body or just “PFA”. It suggests you are sending the same email to everyone.
- The wrong name or company, copied from your last application. Check both every time.
- Emailing many companies at once with everyone in the To or CC field. Send each application separately.
- Text-speak and casual tone: “hi sir pls find my cv”, emojis, or no capital letters.
- A long email. If it doesn't fit on one phone screen, it is too long; the detail belongs in the attachment.
- Following up too often. One follow-up after a week or ten days is enough. A second, two weeks later, is the limit.
A final checklist
- Recipient address is the one in the post, and the greeting uses the right name.
- Subject line has the job title, your name and the job ID.
- The email says which job, why you fit, and what you have attached.
- Resume (and cover letter, if needed) attached as PDFs with clear file names.
- Signature has your phone number with country code.
- You have reread it once on your phone.
Make sure the attachment is as tailored as the email: our guide on tailoring your resume to a job description shows a 15-minute routine, and the cover letter generator drafts a matching letter from the job post. When the interview comes, our guides on how to answer “Tell me about yourself” and the thank-you email after an interview cover the next steps.