I'm currently gathering everything I need for an application for a job in Germany. I'm applying via email, so I'll be sending a couple of attachments. Here's what I'm planning to include:
- Cover / motivational letter in the email itself
- Resume as a PDF
- Work samples as a PDF
- Certificates, references, et c. as one combined PDF file
However, I'm not sure about the last point. This includes my school/academic certificates, letters of recommendations from my previous employments and similar references. I don't want to send all of those in seperate files, because then I would have like 10+ attachments to my email and I would hate to be on the receiving end of such an application, as it is a pain to look through them all (and realistically, I don't expect anyone to do so). So I'm wondering if it is acceptable to combine all of those into one PDF file. This way, I'll only have three attachments in total, which seems more concise and accessible to me.
Is that a reasonable approach to the email application? Or is there a reason why I shouldn't combine those certificates into one file? If so, is there a better way of handling this problem (i.e. not wanting to send too many attachments)?
I also have all those certificates stored on my server, and my resume contains direct links to them in the appropriate places. I have thought about just leaving it like this and not attach any of those certificates to the email at all, but that doesn't seem like a good idea either. Is it?