Should I attach my CV to a cold email about a job?

Yes, to the first email, and never to a follow-up. The opening letter is a job application and the CV is what it is for, so attach it and say so in the sign-off: name, phone number, CV attached, every time. A follow-up with the attachment again reads as a second application from somebody who forgot they sent the first. Keep the body itself between 60 and 90 words whether or not anything is attached, because the attachment is not what decides if the message gets read.

First email yes, follow-up no

The opening letter is a job application and the CV is what it is for. Attach it, and say so in the sign-off so the reader knows before they scroll: name, phone number, CV attached. Same three lines every time.

A follow-up with the attachment again reads as a second application from somebody who forgot they sent the first. The nudge is two or three lines on the original thread and nothing else.

It is not what gets you read

The body still has to do the work in 60 to 90 words: the exact role, one concrete detail from that specific advert, two or three proof points with figures, then exactly one question. Nobody opens an attachment from a stranger whose email did not earn it.

Practical bits that cost people replies

• PDF, not a document file. It renders the same everywhere and cannot be edited by accident.
• Name it like a human. Harry Russell CV.pdf, not cv_final_v3_USE_THIS.pdf.
• One attachment. A covering letter as a second file is the letter you already wrote in the email, twice.
• Keep it small. Anything over a couple of megabytes is a photo you did not need.

What goes in the body instead

The two or three things from the CV that answer this advert, as numbers. A reader who wants the rest opens the attachment. A reader who does not was never going to. The full template.

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