Вчера я отправил резюме работодателю по электронной почте.

Because отправил is perfective, and it presents the action as completed: the résumé was sent.

In this sentence, Вчера already places the event at a specific time in the past, and отправил fits the idea of one finished action.

• отправить → отправил = to send, successfully / as a completed act
• отправлять → отправлял = to be sending / to send repeatedly / to focus on the process

So:

• Вчера я отправил резюме... = Yesterday I sent the résumé...
• Вчера я отправлял резюме... could sound more like Yesterday I was sending the résumé... or it may focus on the process rather than the result.

That is the normal marker of the past tense in Russian.

Russian past tense is formed from the verb stem plus a past-tense ending:

• masculine: -л
• feminine: -ла
• neuter: -ло
• plural: -ли

So here:

• я отправил = I sent if the speaker is male
• я отправила = I sent if the speaker is female

This is a very common question because English past tense does not change for the speaker’s gender, but Russian does.

Yes. Отправил is the masculine singular past form.

If a woman says the same sentence, she would say:

• Вчера я отправила резюме работодателю по электронной почте.

So the sentence tells you something about the speaker’s gender.

Because it is in the dative case, which often marks the person something is sent to.

The dictionary form is работодатель = employer.
After a verb like отправить when you say send something to someone, the recipient is commonly in the dative:

• отправить резюме кому? → работодателю

So:

• резюме = the thing sent
• работодателю = the recipient, to the employer

Here резюме is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of отправил.

Question:

• что я отправил? → резюме

The reason it looks unchanged is that резюме is an indeclinable noun in modern Russian. That means its form usually stays the same in different cases.

So you may see:

• это резюме
• нет резюме
• отправил резюме

The form stays резюме.

Yes, it is normally treated as neuter, even though it is indeclinable.

So if you need to agree with it, you would usually use neuter forms, for example:

• хорошее резюме = a good résumé

This is useful because indeclinable nouns still usually have a grammatical gender in Russian, even if their endings do not change.

По электронной почте is the standard way to say by email or via email.

It uses the preposition по, which here takes the dative case:

• по почте = by mail
• по электронной почте = by email

That is why both words change:

• электронная почта → электронной почте
  (dative singular)

This is a set expression worth memorizing as a whole.

Because adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in case, number, and gender.

The base phrase is:

• электронная почта = electronic mail / email

After по, the noun is in the dative singular, so the adjective must also be dative singular feminine:

• электронная почта → электронной почте

So:

• электронной agrees with
• почте

This kind of agreement happens throughout Russian grammar.

Yes, often you can.

Russian often omits personal pronouns when the meaning is clear from the verb form or the context. So this would also sound natural:

• Вчера отправил резюме работодателю по электронной почте.

Because отправил already tells us it is I and that the speaker is masculine singular.

Still, keeping я is perfectly fine, especially if you want emphasis or extra clarity.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible.

Putting Вчера first is very natural because it sets the time frame right away:

• Вчера я отправил резюме работодателю по электронной почте.

But other orders are also possible, depending on emphasis:

• Я вчера отправил резюме работодателю по электронной почте.
• Резюме я вчера отправил работодателю по электронной почте.

The basic meaning stays the same, but the focus shifts slightly.

English relies much more on fixed word order; Russian uses word order more for emphasis and information structure.

It specifically means employer: a person or company that employs people.

So работодателю here means to the employer or to a prospective employer, depending on context.

A learner may wonder whether it means something like boss, but that would usually be a different word, such as:

• начальник = boss / superior

So работодатель is more formal and fits well with a sentence about sending a résumé.

In modern informal Russian, yes, people do use words like имейл, email, or expressions such as по email in casual speech or business contexts influenced by English.

But по электронной почте is the most standard, neutral, and textbook-safe version.

So for learners, по электронной почте is an excellent phrase to remember.

Because Russian has no articles like a/an/the.

Whether the meaning is definite or indefinite is understood from context.

So:

• резюме can mean a résumé or the résumé
• работодателю can mean to an employer or to the employer

English speakers often look for a direct equivalent of the or a, but Russian simply does not mark that grammatically in the same way.

A useful breakdown is:

• Вчера = time expression
• я = subject
• отправил = verb
• резюме = direct object
• работодателю = indirect object / recipient
• по электронной почте = manner / means

So the pattern is roughly:

Time + Subject + Verb + Thing sent + Recipient + Means

That is a very useful model for building similar sentences, such as:

• Сегодня я отправил документы менеджеру по электронной почте.
• Утром она отправила письмо клиенту по электронной почте.