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How To Apply Properly: Email, Naukri, LinkedIn
Aarav has a good resume now. He sends it to nine companies in one evening. Subject line: "Resume". Attachment: final2 (1).pdf . Body: "PFA my resume. Kindly consider." One of them goes to the wrong company name. Nine applications, zero replies.
9 min readFree, no email neededUpdated 11 September 2026
Nine applications, zero replies
Aarav has a good resume now. He sends it to nine companies in one evening. Subject line: "Resume". Attachment: final2 (1).pdf. Body: "PFA my resume. Kindly consider." One of them goes to the wrong company name. Nine applications, zero replies.
Priya, on the other side, opens 300 emails for one role. She is not judging your code yet. She is judging whether you can be trusted to write to a client. A wrong company name, a blank body, a file called final2: each one is a quiet no.
None of this is hard. It is a set of small habits that take ten minutes to learn and thirty seconds to apply. This guide is the whole set.
The resume gets you the interview. The application gets the resume opened.
File naming
Priya downloads 300 files into one folder. Yours has to be findable by your name, and it has to open on any device.
final2 (1).pdfWhich of the 300 is this? Nobody knows. Deleted.resume new updated FINAL.docxWord files open with broken fonts on her phone. And "FINAL" says you are not sure.CV_Aarav.pdfSorted by name, this sits under C with fifty other CV_ files.Aarav Sharma Resume.pdfSpaces turn into %20 in links and some portals reject them.Aarav_Sharma_Resume.pdfSorted by your name, opens everywhere, says exactly what it is.Aarav_Sharma_Resume_Zenvia.pdfIf you tailored it for one company. Never let the wrong company's name go out.Aarav_Sharma_Cover_Letter.pdfSame pattern for anything else you attach.- Always PDF. Export from Word with File → Save As → PDF. Under 1 MB.
- Open the PDF once after exporting. Check the links click and the page count is one.
- Keep one master file. Every version is a copy with a company suffix, never "v2".
Subject line formulas
Priya searches her inbox by role name and job ID. If your subject line has neither, your email does not exist.
"Resume" · "Job" · "Application" · "Hi" · "Urgent: need job" · "Fresher looking for opportunity" · an empty subject
The 5-line email
Five lines, each with one job: who, what, proof, logistics, ask. Under 100 words. Priya reads it on her phone between meetings.
- Replace every bracket. Read it once aloud. Send from a laptop, not from the Gmail app, so the attachment name is visible.
- Never write "PFA", "Kindly consider", "Please revert", or "I hope this email finds you well".
A professional signature
Plain text, four lines, no image, no quote, no "Sent from my iPhone". Set it once in Gmail: Settings → See all settings → Signature.
The rules
- Line 1 is your name, bold. Line 2 is degree, college, graduation year. Line 3 is phone and email. Line 4 is links.Recruiters copy the phone number from here. Make it easy.
- Links as plain text, not "Click here". They must open when pasted into a browser.Set a custom LinkedIn URL (Edit public profile) so it is not linkedin.com/in/aarav-sharma-8b21a3.
- No images, no logos, no colours, no motivational quote, no "Regards" inside the signature.Images turn into attachments on many mail clients and trip spam filters.
- Same signature on every email, including follow-ups and thank-you notes.
Your email address is part of the signature. firstname.lastname@gmail.com or close to it. If yours is rockstar_aarav2003, make a new one today; it takes two minutes, and forward the old one.
When to follow up
Two follow-ups, then stop. Reply on the same email thread, so the original is right below. Never start a new thread.
Referral? Follow up with the referrer, not the recruiter: "Hi Rohan, any update from the Payments team? No pressure, just keeping my tracker honest." One message, day 7.
How to track applications
One Google Sheet, eight columns. Copy this. Fill one row the moment you apply, not "later tonight". Sixty rows over a season is normal.
- Status is one of: Applied · Followed up · OA received · Interview · Offer · Rejected · No reply (closed).Close a row at day 14 with no reply. Not closing rows is how people apply twice.
- "Next" always has a date. Every Sunday, sort by Next and do whatever is due.
- Search the sheet for the company name before every application. Two applications to one company in one month looks like a bot.
- Keep a "Notes" column at the far right for the recruiter's name, the CTC mentioned, and what they asked.
Before you click Apply
Ninety seconds, every time, on Naukri, LinkedIn or a company careers page.
8 things that quietly disqualify you
Nobody emails you to say which one it was. Priya just moves to the next file.
- The wrong company name."I have always wanted to work at Zenvia" sent to Nimbus Pay. Search the draft for the company name before every send.
- Emoji, anywhere.Not in the subject, not in the body, not in the signature. Not one.
- A one-word email: "Resume", "PFA", "Attached".An empty body reads as "I could not be bothered". Five lines, always.
- Applying twice to the same role.Once by email, once on Naukri, once on LinkedIn. Their system merges them, and you look like a bot. One channel, then follow up.
- A Gmail address problem.rockstar_aarav2003, a college email that expires in May, or a display name set to "aarav sharma" in lowercase. Fix all three in Gmail settings.
- Replying-all, forwarding your own application, or CCing ten recruiters.One recipient. BCC nobody. Mass mails get filtered as spam and mark your domain.
- Sending at 2:40 a.m., or five minutes after the post went up.Both look like automation. Send between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on a weekday.
- Links that do not open.A private GitHub repo, a LinkedIn URL with a typo, a portfolio on localhost. Click every link from the PDF before you attach it.
Want this on your phone?
Everything above, as a PDF built to read on a phone the morning of the interview. It costs nothing — we ask for an email so we can send it, and that is all.