You might wonder, how "To Whom It May Concern", which seems rather irreverent in its addressing of the recipients, became the go-to form of address for an unknown recipient. Well, it was probably because getting a sufficient amount of information about a person before the age of the internet was rather tough.
Today, using those five words in your letters tells a lot about you to your prospective boss and not much of it is good. It makes you sound ancient, to begin with, along with lazy and other such adjectives being attributed to you. This is because, they would imagine that if you really had the passion for the job, you would have the time to tailor your greeting after doing the required amount of research.
But do not worry, we have just the right alternatives for you:
1. Dear/Hello [Your Boss's Name]
You can try to figure out who the person filling out the open role would report to, that is the name of your potential future boss, and this would be the best thing for your cover letter.
Let's say that you read in the job description that the role reports to the editor in chief. Then the first thing you need to do is get on the page of the company and find out who the editor in chief is and address the letter to her.
There can be occasions when this is not clear, but still try to do some research and try to figure out, as this would give you an edge over the others showing how much you are invested in the company and for the job. If you have someone known in the company, ask them.
You should also try to determine how formal the culture is within the company as you are doing your research :
- Do you start with “Dear” or “Hello” (or you could just go with the name)
- Do you use honorifics (Mr., Ms., Dr., Prof., etc)
- Do you use a full name or just a first name.
If you are not really sure about this after your research, you would want to move towards a more formal approach. Even without the name, you could choose from one of the other options mentioned here, but you have to be careful about the tone and the formality.
2. Dear [HOD's Name]
After you have done your best to figure out the name of your potential future boss, and failed, do not be worried. It sometimes is a little tough to figure this kind of detail out.
Instead of writing To Whom It May Concern, you can address the letter to the head of the department. Yes, that would mean that you have addressed the letter to your boss's boss but in a way you are still reporting to them in a chain. It also shows your effort.
3. Dear [Department's Name]
Similarly, you can address your letter to the team or department, if you can't find the name of the department head. You could just say, "Hello Management Team" or "Dear Sales Department", for instance.
4. Dear [Recruiter's Name]
If you have given up on finding the manager or department head, but you are determined to write to a specific person, you might still have hope. You can address your letter to the recruiter or the talent acquisition specialist if you can zero in on them. At the end of the day, they will be the ones that will read the letter first and decide if you should move on to the next step.
5. Dear [Name Of The Recruiting Team Or The Department]
You can also address the team if you do not find out a name for the recruiter. If you search the internet thoroughly you will be able to find what exactly it is called by a particular company. It would be something along the lines of "Dear Talent Department" or "Dear Talent Acquisition Team".
To that, you should always add the name of the company and it would read something like "Dear Muse Talent Acquisition Team" where "Muse" is the name of the company.
6. Dear Recruiter/Hiring Manager
You could use the generic titles to address the recruiting or hiring managers, i.e. by writing "Dear Recruiter" or "Dear Hiring Manager".
7. Dear [Role for Which You’re Applying] Hiring Manager/Hiring Team
In case you are being generic with the address, you would want to be more specific by at least incorporating the role you are applying for in the salutation. For instance, you can say, " Hello Relationship Manager Hiring Manager" or " Dear Account Executive Search Committee".
This is the least you can do by showing them that you know the role that you are applying for and that you have done tinkled a bit with your application.
The main aim that you want to focus on with the letter is to get through to the next hiring stage and you need to keep that in mind throughout.
