Summary: Trying to determine who to address a cover letter to may be difficult, but you should never resort to the easy cop-out of “To Whom It May Concern.”
There is often a lot of confusion and mixed advice when it comes to addressing cover letters. Unfortunately, some of what hiring managers and recruiters look for is from their personal preference, but there are general guidelines that most will look for.
The general consensus:
Address cover letters to the hiring manager
Do what it takes to find out who that person is
This may mean calling the front desk to find out
“To Whom It May Concern” is lazy and outdated
Do not get pushy in trying to find out who is responsible for reading the cover letters from a job posting. There may be a good chance that there was no name with the job posting because the company wants the person doing the reading to stay anonymous. There is also a good chance that more than one person may read your cover letter or that the hiring manager only actually reads the best cover letters after a team has sorted through them.
In the circumstance that you absolutely cannot determine who to address your cover letter to, a general greeting is better than guessing the wrong person. In this case a greeting such as “Dear [Company Name] team,” is a proper way of making it clear who the cover letter is intended for.
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