Is the Phrase “Please Find Attached My Resume” Outdated?

If you’re writing an email cover letter or a message to go along with your application, you will likely tell the hiring manager that you’re sending in the resume and cover letter with the email or other message. Often, people will use the phrase “Please find attached my resume” to indicate to the recruiter that they’ve attached their resume to the message so that the resume 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 resume attachment.

Generally, career experts are steering people away from using the term “Please find attached my resume” 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 resume in an envelope. However, you attach files to your resume, you don’t enclose them. Therefore, saying “Please find enclosed my resume” 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:

• I have attached my resume for your review
• As the attached resume shows…
• I have included my resume with this email
• I have attached my resume for your consideration
• My resume is attached to this email
• Please consider the attached resume
• Please see the attached resume for more details
• You’ll find all attachments in this email
• The attached resume includes…

These phrases all sound natural and allude to or directly state the fact that you have attached a resume 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 resume. 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 resume.

It’s also possible to send a link to an online resume or LinkedIn profile. This can be effective when the job posting is looking for an internet-savvy person, but a professional resume will typically be a .PDF or .docx file that you attach to an email. Be careful with submissions that are hosted fully online, as they may not come across as professional enough.

You can also allude to the resume with a statement like, “Let me know if you have any questions about my information.” This notes that you have submissions attached to the resume, 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.