How to address a cover letter can be tricky if you are responding to a blind ad and don't have a contact person's name to include, or if you don't know the gender of the person you are addressing your cover letter to.
If you don't have a contact person at the company you can either leave off the salutation from your cover letter and start with the first paragraph of your letter or use a general salutation.
There are a variety of cover letter salutations you can use to address your letter. Employers who responded to an employer survey conducted by Saddleback College preferred:
- Dear Hiring Manager (38%)
- To whom it may concern (26%)
- Dear Sir/Madam (18%)
Here are tips on how to address a cover letter when you don't have a name to include or when you're not sure of the hiring manager's gender.
Related Articles: What to Include in a Cover Letter | Top 10 Cover Letter Tips
Read More: Should You Include a Cover Letter if It's Not Required? | How to Mention Relocation in a Cover Letter
Image Copyright Alison Doyle
Speaking as a former hiring manager, I dislike “Dear Hiring Manager” since that’s not my title. My preference is for “Dear Sir or Madam.”
What I’m writing for, though, is to emphasize that if a name is given in the advertisement, ALWAYS address the letter to that person.
I once received a letter that was obviously copied from a book. For the date, the writer typed “Date: ______” and handwrote the date. The ad said “reply to Dave,” and the salutation was “Dear Hiring Manager:” (at least he properly used a colon. The first sentence was “In response to your advertisement in the Newspaper A/Newspaper B/Newspaper C, I am applying for a position as Position A/Position B/Position C…” (newspaper names and positions not revealed hear, to help protect the ignorant; this was 20 years ago, after all). The applicant had CIRCLED the newspaper name and position title.
Needless to say, he was not considered any further. The only reason the letter didn’t go into the shredder immediately is that I kept it, without identifying information, as an example of how NOT to write a cover letter.
Just a last point for applicants to consider: if the advertisement or job posting doesn’t specifically say “no cover letter,” write one. That was my first cut — if I couldn’t read the letter, I didn’t care what the applicant’s technical abilities were. Whether or not it’s stated in the job description EVERY job requires communications skills.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Dave.
So my question is, what if you don’t know AT ALL who the letter is going to be addressed to. What do I write instead of “Dear Dave”? I’m applying for Levi’s, and it’s asking me for a cover letter. First time I’ve applied for a retail store. Thank you!
@Suemi: If you don’t know who’s doing the hiring by name writing “Dear Sir or Madam” is sufficient.