Is the Phrase “Please Find Attached My CV” Outdated?
The phrase “Please find attached my CV” is common in emails. Is it actually a term you should still be using today? Find out with our excellent advice.
The phrase “Please find attached my CV” is common in emails. Is it actually a term you should still be using today? Find out with our excellent advice.
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If you’re writing an cover email or a message to go along with your application, you will likely tell the hiring manager that you’re sending in the CV and cover letter with the email or other message. Often, people will use the phrase “Please find attached my CV” to indicate to the recruiter that they’ve attached their CV to the message so that the CV doesn’t go unnoticed. Is this actually a good idea, or is it an unnecessary phrase that you can eliminate from your application? Here’s everything you need to know about referring to your CV attachment.
Generally, career experts are steering people away from using the term “Please find attached my CV” in their job search. It sounds old-fashioned and stuffy, and this just isn’t how people talk anymore. If you use it, you run the risk of sounding old-fashioned yourself, which can leave a bad first impression.
Using the term “enclosed” doesn’t help much, either. It was commonly used back in the day when you would literally send a hard copy of your CV in an envelope. However, you attach files to your CV, you don’t enclose them. Therefore, saying “Please find enclosed my CV” tends to create the impression that you have a dated outlook, which can similarly create a negative first impression.
The good news is that there are plenty of other ways to indicate that there is an email attachment the hiring manager should pay attention to. Any of these phrases are good to use in an email message for a new job:
These phrases all sound natural and allude to or directly state the fact that you have attached a CV to the email. This helps avoid pieces of your job application getting lost through the email process while still sounding natural.
It’s also possible to write an application email without stating that you’ve attached your CV. This is most commonly used if you feel like stating the attachment interrupts the flow of the email.
You can send the email with no statement. It’s pretty difficult to miss attachments nowadays, and the standard of requiring a statement largely formed in the days when it was much easier to miss that an email had an attachment with it. If you’re sending an email application, potential employers will know that you’re including a CV.
It’s also possible to send a link to an online CV or LinkedIn profile. This can be effective when the job posting is looking for an internet-savvy person, but a professional CV will typically be a .PDF or .docx file and use precise CV and cover letter title so the hiring manager knows what’s attached. Be careful with submissions that are hosted fully online, as they may not come across as professional enough.
You can also allude to the CV with a statement like, “Let me know if you have any questions about my information.” This notes that you have submissions attached to the CV, but doesn’t draw attention to the attached file. Plus, it also welcomes questions about all your information, which could lead to a job interview.
It is technically grammatically correct. The problem with the phrase is not that it’s incorrect, but that it sounds very old-fashioned. It’s the same reason that it’s considered common career advice to avoid terms like “To Whom It May Concern” on your cover letter.
It’s best to try and weave this phrase into the flow of your letter. If you’re following the three-paragraph cover letter format that CVHelp recommends, you’ll typically include it in the last paragraph. Here are some examples:
All of these are effective ways to state that you’ve attached a CV to the email.
When attaching your CV and cover letter to an email, upload them as individual .PDF or .docx files. Name them something that’s easy to parse, like Firstname_Lastname CV and Firstname_Lastname Cover Letter. This way, not only will a hiring manager notice them, but if they save the CV to their computer, it’s easier for them to find the documents again.
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