How to email a cover letter: 12 subject lines, 3 templates

A cover letter can travel by email in two ways: as an attached document with a short note to introduce it, or as the email itself, with only your resume attached. The listing often says which.

An instruction about how to apply outranks any preference of yours or ours. Where there is none, we suggest the email as the letter: your case is on screen as soon as the message is opened, and nothing has to be downloaded. The cost is that a letter in the body stays behind if your resume is saved or forwarded on its own. For an address that is plainly a shared inbox (jobs@, careers@), attach the letter as a PDF and use the covering note.

What each choice changes about the letter

Choose one. The same letter pasted and attached gives the reader two versions and nothing new, so do both only if the listing asks. For letters at email length, see our short cover letter examples.

Your subject line shows before the email is opened. Its job is to say what the message is and who sent it, so it can be filed and found again. That takes three things.

• The exact job title, as the listing words it: "Payroll Administrator", not "payroll role".
• The reference number, if there is one, copied character for character.
• Your full name, as it appears on your resume.

Put the job before your name: a long subject line can be cut short in an inbox list, and the job is the part that must survive. If the listing dictates a subject line, use its wording exactly and add nothing.

Leave out "urgent", capital letters, exclamation marks and anything written as a headline. A subject line is a label.

Replace everything in square brackets. The first is the covering note for an attached letter: it says what is attached and for which job, gives one reason to open it, and stops.

Subject: Application: [Job title] (ref [number]), [Your name]

Dear [Mr/Ms Surname or Hiring Manager],

My cover letter and resume for the [job title] role (ref [number]) are attached.

[Your strongest result that fits this job, in one sentence.] The letter sets out how I did it and what I would bring to [company].

I am available for a call [days and times].

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Phone]

The second is the letter itself: the structure of a letter on a page, without the header and shorter. How to write a cover letter shows how to build each paragraph.

Subject: Application: [Job title], [Your name]

Dear [Mr/Ms Surname or Hiring Manager],

[Your strongest result that fits this job, with a number if you have one.] [The role and its reference, and how that result answers the listing.]

[A second requirement from the listing, what you did, and what came of it.]

[One specific thing this company is doing, and how it connects to your experience.]

My resume is attached. [What you would like to talk about, and when you are free.]

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Phone]
[City, or a portfolio link]

The third is a follow-up. Send one, not a series: a week after the closing date, or a week to ten days after you applied if the listing gives no date. If the listing says not to chase, do not. Reply to your own sent email, so the application sits beneath your note.

Subject: Re: [Your original subject line]

Dear [Name],

I applied for the [job title] role (ref [number]) on [date] and would like to check that my application reached you.

[One sentence of substance: the result that best fits the job, or something relevant that has happened since you applied.]

I have attached my documents again to save you a search. I can talk [days and times].

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Phone]

Ioana Petrescu is a payroll assistant at a hotel group. The listing she is answering gave a contact's name, an email address and a reference number, and nothing on format, so her email is her letter.

File names

Once an attachment is saved out of your email, its file name is all that identifies it. It should say whose it is and what it is.

Name the resume to match. Send PDFs unless the listing names another type, and separate files unless it asks for one. See Cover letter format for layout and file type.

The signature under your name

After "Kind regards," and your full name, give a phone number (with the country code if you are applying abroad), one link if it shows your work, and your city or time zone if the role is remote. Leave out quotations, images, logos and your current job's signature, and delete "Sent from my phone". More sign-offs are in How to end a cover letter.

The address you send from

Send from a personal address built from your name, the same one that is on your resume. Do not use your current employer's address: it is their system, and you lose the mailbox the day you leave. Check the display name too: the "From" field shows it beside your subject line, so make it your full name, properly capitalised.

1. Read the listing's instructions again: closing date, documents, file type, subject line wording.
2. Check the three names in the subject line, greeting and body: company, role and person. If the greeting is in doubt, see who to address a cover letter to.
3. Open each attachment from the draft. Right version, right company, the file name you chose.
4. Paste as plain text, so no stray fonts or colours travel with a letter written elsewhere.
5. Send it to yourself first. Read it on a phone, signature included, and open the attachments there.
6. Add the recipient's address last, copied from the listing. An email with an empty "To" field cannot go by accident.