How to Address a Cover Letter - Job Searching - About.com

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.

Source: http://jobsearch.about.com/b/2013/06/22/how-to-address-a-cover-letter.htm

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