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Cover Letters > Get the job > How to search > Resume > The right job
Is “To whom it may concern” the kiss of death?
- January 19th, 2010
- 291 Comments
Most job seekers know that, whenever possible, it’s best to address your cover letter to the person who has the power to hire you — or at least the person who can bring you in for an interview.
But, all too often, if a name isn’t listed on a job posting, the job seeker resorts to an old-fashioned salutation like, “To Whom It May Concern.” What they don’t know, is that this approach can sometimes be considered the kiss of death.
Impersonal salutations like “Dir Sir/Madam” or “To Whom It May Concern,” show an employer two things. The first is that you lack the initiative to locate the appropriate contact; the second is that you show a disregard for any research needed to be done on your part. In short, employers will think you’re lazy and your cover letter will end up in the trash.
One of the most common questions we get is how to find the name of a hiring manager, particularly at a large company. Here are four ways to find out the addressee of your cover letter:
1. Read the job posting
A no-brainer, but still needs to be mentioned. Sometimes you’ll get lucky, and the job you want to apply for will list a contact right in the posting. But even then, you sometimes need to dig a little deeper. Say, for example, the listed contact is “Chris Smith.” You don’t know if Chris is a man or a woman. If you can’t find that out, it’s safe to address your letter “Dear C. Smith.” That way, you’ve made it personal, but you haven’t offended anyone.
2. Call the company
If a job posting does not list a contact name, call the company. Yes, it really is that simple. Call the main number listed for the company and ask for the name of its corporate recruiter or hiring manager. Or, call and say you were wondering who manages the position to which you’re applying. That way, your materials get sent directly to the person who needs to see them.
3. Look on the Internet
A simple search on your favorite search engine can often do the trick. One search and anything from company directories to employer background information to stock market share could pop up. Try searching “ABC company hiring manager” and see what you find. The Internet is a wealth of information, if you just put in a little effort to find out what you want to know.
4. Ask your personal contacts
We always try to stress the important of networking in your job search. Surprisingly, many people ignore that advice in situations like writing your cover letter. Let’s say you find a job that interests you, and there’s no contact information listed. You go to one of your contacts and have the following conversation:
You: “Hey, do you happen to know of anyone who works at ABC Company?
Contact: “Actually, I used to work there five years ago.”
You: “Really? I’m applying for a position there. Do you know how who I might report to?”
Or maybe the conversation goes like this:
You: “Hey, do you happen to know of anyone who works at ABC Company?”
Contact: “I don’t, but I know my colleague worked there before coming to work with us .”
You: “Really? Do you think I could have his or her name to see if they can help me find out who to send my application materials to?”
You get the picture. The bottom line is everybody knows someone — you just never know until you ask.
If you try all of these methods and you’re still coming up short, Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark, co-authors of “Cover Letter Magic” and two of the nation’s most reputable career coaches, examine a few possible salutations and a few key points to remember about each one.
- Dear Sir/Madam. All-purpose and inoffensive, although it might be perceived as stodgy and old-fashioned.
- To Whom It May Concern. Another standard; has the downside of being impersonal and old-fashioned.
- Dear Hiring Executive (or Hiring Committee). Formal, but appropriate.
- Dear Human Resources (or Human Resources Representative). Acceptable only if you’re writing to a “blind ad” that lists only a P.O. box and you cannot call to get a specific individual’s name.
- Dear Hiring Authority. Acceptable only if, despite your best efforts, you have been unable to uncover the name of the non-HR person to whom you’re sending your résumé.
- Good Morning (or Good Day). A bit more up-to-date, but it reminds us of junk-mail greetings that try (unsuccessfully) to be personal.
- Re: Job Title You’re Applying For (leaving off a specific salutation). A useful method for replying to want ads, when you truly don’t know to whom you are sending your résumé. We think it’s preferable to the “Dear Human Resources” greeting.
- No Salutation (begin your letter immediately after the inside address). Again, perfectly acceptable for want-ad replies. Might be considered an improvement over old-fashioned, nonspecific greetings.
Editor’s note – 2/16/2010: We appreciate all the comments our readers are leaving. To gauge more hiring manager opinions, we took this debate to the hiring managers themselves on our FaceBook page for Employers: http://www.facebook.com/CBforEmployers The verdict so far? It’s not a deal breaker. While using general addresses are not deal breakers, the lesson, however, is to make sure you personalize your cover letter as much as possible when you can because the more you can do to catch a hiring manager’s attention, the better!
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Most job postings do not include the name a contact. If you get the wrong name and use it, so much the worse for your application. It will get to the wrong person and then go in the garbage. At some firms, it goes into the garbage regardless!
I thought I might point out something humorous. The tenth comment, posted by Mark, illustrated an apparant grammatical error in the article.
"We always try to stress the of networking in your job search."
I'm assuming the article was updated as it now reads, "We always try to stress the important of networking in your job search."
You may want to go back and change "important" to "importance."
there are professional career coaches out there that charges a small fee :;`
If the hiring manager isn't disclosing his name on the job posting, that means only one thing: he does not want to disclose that information to you!
It's fine if you actually do some research to find out who he is, in order to tailor your cover letter toward him, but by addressing it to him directly, you may as well sign off your cover letter with "Your Name, Stalker."
Lulubell4ever - You are obviously confused about the way some basic punctuation is used in the English language. The ' mark is NOT a comma, but an apostrophe - and it is NOT used when "addressing a group." It is used for contractions, such as can't or won't and to indicate possession as in the employees' lounge or the managers' books - and I am using it to indicate that it is ALL of the employees, not just one person - and ALL of the managers, not just on particular one, so it is plural as a possessive. BUT, again, the apostrophe is NOT used to indicate the plural noun, as in "The teachers are going to a meeting." In this case, where "teachers" is a noun, there is no possession - and therefore no apostrophe.
Robert,
You don't need a job! You should be a playwright! Your posting was funnier than he**!
Hope you're successful if you are or become a writer!
employers get as much as they are willing to give.. contact Tom.. Tom gets a Dear Tom. Human Resources gets Dear Human Resources Confidential Company gets ( and only if I truly interested in working for a company too secretive to post who they are ) dear confidential company.
Kissing a@@ gets you nowhere.
If the employer really wanted you to know their name, then they would just put their name on their ad, and the reason they often don't put contact info is to prevent too many people from calling them. Why would they intentionally play mind games with people by hiding their contact information just to see if people can guess what their expectations are without telling them?
This article is really disturbing. To be blessed to have such a forum to assist the masses in finding employment and you post nonsense to take up space. Career builder you suck, postings are followed by all kinds of SPAM. You are into making money for yourselves by having job seekers use you site. You should be shut down!!!
I just started blogging on wp and this is exactly what I will be avoiding. Never EVER tell people how to do something that you simply have no experience doing yourself. Second, there are always situations where this advice will hurt your chances. Since we do not have anyway to know whether this advice is effective, the best rule of thumb is to do what you can the best way you can. Third, this is a VERY touchy subject for those with degrees and years of experience in professional careers currently unemployed. Personally, I realize the IMPORTANCE (as Carol pointed out) of having experience and the confidence in your abilities. That is what employers are looking for not to whom you are addressing...
Here's a trick I developed to get more information on anonymous postings: "Copy" a disctinctive phrase in the job description--some words that are less generic sounding--and then do a Google search with that language in quotes.
This technique will often take you to the website of the company with the job opening!
Good luck. Larry Braman
Well then, after 204 comments pretty much ripping this advice to shreads, perhaps CB advisors would like to digest just what message that there is to be had here and do two things:
.
1) Share this discontent and its specifics with management at companies that utilize its service (and I don't mean HR managers, since it is already clear that most of them could care less anyway).
2) Rethink this not-so-pithy advice and own up to the fact that it was next to worthless.
.
Thank you.
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[...] reading here: Is “To Whom It May Concern” the Kiss of Death? Share and [...]
[...] February 16, 2010 Here is a link everyone looking for work should read. Advice from The Career Builder Blog. [...]
[...] http://www.theworkbuzz.com/career-advice/whom-it-may-concern-kiss-of-death/ [...]
[...] over at CareerBuilder’s job seeker blog, The Work Buzz, recently wrote about whether writing “To Whom It May Concern” as the salutation to a prospective employer on a cover letter is the kiss of death for a potential [...]
[...] Is “To whom it may concern” the kiss of death? Impersonal salutations like “Dir Sir/Madam” or “To Whom It May Concern,” show an employer two things. The first is that you lack the initiative to locate the appropriate contact; the second is that you show a disregard for any research needed to be done on your part. Posted February 16, 2010 by admin. Comments and trackbacks are open. Follow the comments feed. Filed under: DIRECT – Target/Resume Tagged with: . [...]
[...] CareerBuilder Can Blow Me Just when I thought looking for a job could not possibly become anymore ridiculous than it already is, the job hunting and employment site known as CareerBuilder published an article today entitled, Is To Whom It May Concern the Kiss of Death? [...]
[...] Death, the salutation on a cover letter is not the first thing that pops in my brain. According to The Work Buzz, you should never, ever address a cover letter to, “To Whom it May Concern, or Dear [...]
[...] over at CareerBuilder’s job seeker blog, The Work Buzz, recently wrote about whether writing “To Whom It May Concern” as the salutation to a prospective employer on a cover letter is the kiss of death for a potential [...]
[...] over at CareerBuilder’s job seeker blog, The Work Buzz, recently wrote about whether writing “To Whom It May Concern” as the salutation to a prospective employer on a cover letter is the kiss of death for a potential [...]
[...] colleagues over at CareerBuilder’s job seeker blog, The Work Buzz, recently wrote about whether writing “To Whom It May Concern” as the salutation to a prospective employer on a cover letter is the kiss of death for a potential [...]
[...] is where The Talent Buzz comes in. I was reading Is “To whom it may concern” the kiss of death? the other day and it’s a great resource for anyone who has run into this problem. The entire [...]
[...] the kiss of death?" This appeared on the careerbuilder.com blog called the Work Buzz. http://www.theworkbuzz.com/career-advice/whom-it-may-concern-kiss-of-death/. Here was her [...]
[...] Those of you who have been reading Prattle for the past year are well aware of exactly what I think about job search websites and those who write job search advice columns for a living. In fact, back in February, along with hundreds of others who commented on the piece when it was published, I lambasted Careerbuilder’s Rachel Zupek for her idiotic column. [...]
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[...] 特に重要なのが、履歴書を送る場合。THE WORKBUZZ の『Is “To whom it may concern” the kiss of death?』（2010年1月）という記事に、相手の名前を見つける方法というのが載っていました。 [...]