How to Write The Best Cover Letter Salutations [+Examples]

A cover letter is a part of you application that comes before your actual resume. It is a page for you to explain your traits, intentions, and details that you cannot describe through your resume in a letter form. Your cover letter is as important as your resume to grab the attention of the recruiter and land yourself an interview (and eventually a job)!

There is a general cover letter structure used commonly by almost all applicants. This means that the cover letter greetings at the beginning and end of your cover letter becomes even more important to help you stand out among other applicants. Your cover letter greeting will determine the first impression that you give to the reader of your application.

However, many people are not sure about how to properly or formally greet someone in a letter because of the daily usage of colloquial greetings. In this article, we’ll show you the best salutations to use in your cover letter to greet your potential employers, and guide you through the tips to make your cover letter salutations stand out!

Salutations are greetings that address the person who is being written to. In this case, it will be the recruiter. Here, are some cover letter salutation examples that you can refer to:

• Dear Hiring Manager,
  This may be the best salutation for a cover letter when you do not know who the recruiter is. It is a formal but not too vague greeting that you can use in a cover letter.
• Dear Mr./Ms. [Last Name],
  When you know the recruiter’s name and gender, you may address him or her directly in this way. This can show that you did put effort into getting hired.
• Dear [Department] Team,
  If you are applying to a specific team and you know that they will be reading your cover letter, you can address the letter to the department instead. It shows your respect towards them, and at the same time, you could avoid addressing the wrong person if you are not sure who exactly will be reading your cover letter.
• Dear [Full Name],
  You can also directly use the full name of the recruiter if you have done enough research on who will be reading the cover letter. This also works when you do not know the gender and appropriate title of the recruiter.
• Dear Mx. [Name],
  Some names might be a little gender confusing that you have no idea how to greet. Instead of using the whole name of the recruiter, you can use the term “Mx.” to avoid misunderstandings. This gender-neutral salutation can also be used to address non-binary people.

• To Whom It May Concern,
  You might recognize this salutation as the most commonly used one in formal letters, but this salutation is now considered outdated for various reasons. It is too long, too needlessly formal and too general. So, try to avoid using this salutation for your cover letter.
• Dear Sir or Madam,
  Although this example may seem very polite and gender-neutral, it is also a rather outdated way of greeting people in letters. It also (kind of) implies that you did not bother to research who the recruiting manager is.
• Hey,
  This example may sound very friendly in daily conversation, but colloquial language is not suitable to be used in a job application cover letter that requires professionalism. 
• Hello there,
  You should only use this kind of greeting in a daily conversation when you meet up with someone your level or when you are talking to your family. 
• What’s up?
  This greeting is obviously too colloquial and doesn’t even qualify to be used when opening a face-to-face conversation with a potential employer. Never use such informal salutations to avoid coming off as impolite, overly friendly or unprofessional and giving a bad impression.

Many people know how to write a cover letter salutation to greet someone but do not know how to play with the words when some information is missing. Here are 5 examples of different situations:

When you know who the hiring manager is

Whether you were offered the job directly, or did your research about the recruiting manager and the company, you can use the below cover letter salutations.

• Dear Mr./Ms. [Last Name],
• Dear Mr./Ms. [Full Name],
• Dear Dr. [Name],
  

How to address a cover letter without a name

There are many times that you might not find the recruiter’s name, which is a very common situation. You should then address him or her formally using these cover letter greetings.

• Dear Hiring Manager,
• Dear HR Manager,
• Dear Recruiter,
• Dear [Department] Team,
• Dear Head of [Name of Department],
  

Gender cover letter salutations

If you know the gender of your recruiter, you should include it in the greeting.

• Dear Mr. [Name],
• Dear Ms. [Name],

Gender-neutral salutations for a cover letter

To keep your salutation gender-neutral, you can address the receiver directly by their name or use a gender-neutral term cover letter salutation, like “Mx. [Name]”.

• Dear [Full Name],
• Dear Mx. [Name],
  

Cover letter closing salutations

After finishing your cover letter, do not forget to end your cover letter professionally with the appropriate complimentary closes. Here are some appropriate cover letter closing salutations to use.

• Best regards,
• Sincerely,
• Cordially,
• Best,
• Regards,
  

As you have seen from the examples given above, there are many ways for you to greet the recruiter but the beginning is always the hardest. The best way to start is with the word “Dear” or “To”, but there is no fault in using one over another.

1. Start with a “Dear” or “To”.

You should always start with “Dear” or “To”. Avoid using informal words like “Hey” that lowers down the professionalism shown toward the recruiters. 

2. Add the title and name of the recruiter to the greeting.

Then, follow it up with the title and the name of the recruiter. It is very important for you to find out the names of the recruiter to show your respect.

3. Write the cover letter salutation in the correct place.

Just like normal letters, include the cover letter salutation right after writing down the address. However, you should also leave a blank space before and after the salutation to separate it from the hiring manager’s address and the body paragraph.

4. If the recruiter is unknown, still make it specific.

If you cannot find the recruiter’s name after researching on the company’s website, still address the reader specifically by directly mentioning the department’s “hiring manager” (i.e. Hiring Manager of XX Team).

There are many ways for you to show respect when you are writing a cover letter salutation to the recruiter when the name of the hiring manager is not known. It is always part of your responsibilities to research a company before handing in your CV.

💡 Search for the recruiters on the company website.

The first thing you should do is to search for the recruiters’ names on the company website. There should be details for each department, allowing you to get a hold of the information needed to write a good cover letter greeting.

💡 Search for the recruiters on LinkedIn or other social media platforms.

LinkedIn is a platform which is widely used for job hunting and networking purposes. Here, you can easily find profiles of people who work at certain companies. Twitter is also a very commonly used social media platform where you can use some keywords to research the recruiter’s profile.

💡 Use “Dear Hiring Manager”.

Sometimes, you might not find the recruiter’s name on any website. However, you can use the term “Dear Hiring Manager” to at least show respect to the reader of your CV instead of leaving it blank or using overly-used cover letter salutations.

💡 Address the team instead.

If you want to avoid greeting the wrong person, you can just address the team with “Dear Hiring Team” instead of addressing one recruiter because this will never go wrong. 

💡 Use “Dear [Position Title] Hiring Manager”.

This is another cover letter salutation that could never go wrong when you don’t know the name of the person in charge of the hiring but still want to make your cover letter salutation sound specific and written with effort. 

--- Originally written by Ryan Goh ---