Career · 2026-08-22 · 14 min read

How to email your CV: subject, body, and attachment

A subject people open, a three-paragraph body, and a PDF ATS can read. Real examples and mistakes that kill the message. ClarCV.

If you are searching how to email a CV, the failure is rarely “no experience”. It is a subject line that says “CV”, a hollow ten-line body, and a Canva PDF that weighs 8 MB or cannot be selected. Screeners get hundreds of messages. Survivors have a vacancy reference, a clean filename, and a file that opens on a phone.

This guide covers the subject (with examples that get opened), the body as a mini cover note, the filename, PDF vs Word, and what changes for a speculative application vs a portal. The pre-send checklist is the sibling page: here the channel is email. ClarCV belongs when the attachment is still a fragile design: upload, regenerate something parseable, then hit send.

You will not “hack” the recruiter’s Gmail. You will remove friction. A perfect email with an image-PDF still loses the next ATS. A clean PDF with a generic subject sometimes never opens. You need both halves.

Email subject: 20 patterns that get opened

The subject is filter zero. “CV attached”, “Looking for work”, or a blank subject mix with spam. Include the role, your name, and a reference if it exists. Stay around 60 characters so mobile does not crop it.

• Customer Success Manager — Ana López
• Ref. 1847 / Data analyst — Ana López
• Application: seasonal waiter — Ana López (immediate start)
• Marketing internship 2026 — Ana López, UB
• Speculative application — Product designer, 6 years e-commerce
• LinkedIn posting 22 Aug — B2B CSM — Ana López
• Maternity cover — Admin — Ana López
• Referral from Marta Ruiz — Backend dev — Ana López
• InfoJobs vacancy “Account Executive Madrid” — Ana López
• Process engineer — Ana López — reloc. Seville

Avoid: “URGENT”, emoji, all caps, “please read”, and your internal filename (CV_final_v8). If they asked for a code, put that code first: that is how they search the inbox. More on boards vs direct email: CVs for InfoJobs, LinkedIn, and job boards.

Body: three paragraphs, not a novel

The email is not a two-page cover letter. It is a lid so they open the PDF. Paragraph 1: who you are and which role (or why you are writing cold). Paragraph 2: one proof (a figure, a tool, years in the sector). Paragraph 3: availability, city/remote, and that the CV is attached. Close with name, phone, and LinkedIn as text.

Before: “I am writing to apply… please find my CV… I look forward to hearing from you.” Zero signal. After: “I am applying for CSM (ref. 1847). I ran 40 accounts in HubSpot and cut first response from 12 hours to 5. PDF attached. I am in Madrid, hybrid, 15 days’ notice.” The second email can be forwarded internally without embarrassment.

• Same language as the ad. Do not mix a Spanish body with an English-only CV without a reason.
• No heavy HTML or a signature with ten logos: some clients clip or flag spam.
• Do not paste the CV as an image in the body. Attachment + text.
• Read it aloud. A typo in the company name kills more than a plain design.

The attachment: name, size, and format

Filename: Ana_Lopez_CSM.pdf. Not “curriculum”, not “untitled”, not odd characters. Selectable-text PDF for most Spanish inboxes. Word only if the ad asks. Detail: PDF or Word CV. Size: aim under 2 MB. Studio photos at 300 dpi sink the email and some portals.

Test before sending: open it on your phone, select the header email, paste into Notes. If no text appears, do not send it into an ATS process. A human recruiter sometimes forgives; the next parser does not.

Speculative email vs a referenced vacancy

With a reference: code in the subject, short body, one achievement aligned to the ad. Speculative: name the team or role type, why that company (one fact, not “industry leader”), and that you accept there may be no opening. Attach the CV; do not ask them to “open a Drive”. An expiring or permissioned link is a silent no.

If you already applied via Easy Apply, do not blast the same PDF by email the same day: it looks like spam. A note to the hiring manager makes sense if you have a real contact or “we spoke at the fair”. The file must match the portal: same dates and titles. CV/email/LinkedIn contradiction = reject.

When to fix the file before you hit send

If your PDF is Canva, a scan, or a three-page Europass, the email is only makeup. Upload to ClarCV, check clarity and structure, apply an A4 ATS template, download. Free: 3 analyses and 2 downloads / 30 days, no card. Pro €7/month. Then paste a subject from this guide and send. Order matters: document first, envelope second.