How to Address a Cover Letter (With Examples for Every Situation)

You have spent an hour writing a cover letter. You have tailored every sentence to the job description, quantified your achievements, and crafted a closing paragraph that practically begs for an interview. Then you scroll back to the top and stare at the blank space where the greeting should be.

"Dear Sir or Madam" feels like something from the 1990s. "To Whom It May Concern" sounds like you are addressing a complaint to a utility company. "Hey there" is too casual. "Dear Hiring Manager" feels generic. And you are not even sure whether the person reading this goes by "Ms." or "Dr." or prefers no title at all.

The greeting is the first line a hiring manager reads. It sets the tone for everything that follows. A well-addressed cover letter signals that you have done your research, that you respect the reader's time, and that you understand professional norms. A poorly addressed one suggests the opposite, no matter how strong the rest of your letter is.

The good news: choosing the right greeting is not complicated once you understand the logic behind it. This guide covers every scenario you are likely to encounter, from knowing the hiring manager's full name to having absolutely no idea who will read your application.

If you are looking for broader guidance on the full document, start with our guide on how to write a cover letter. For industry-specific examples, see our cover letter examples by industry.

The Decision Tree: How to Choose Your Greeting

Choosing the right cover letter greeting comes down to one question: how much do you know about the person reading it?

Here is the decision framework, ordered from best to acceptable:

Scenario 1: You Know the Hiring Manager's Name

This is always the best option. A personalised greeting immediately separates your application from the stack of "Dear Hiring Manager" letters. It shows you took the time to research the company and identify the right person.

Format: "Dear [Title] [Last Name],"

Examples:

• Dear Ms. Chen,
• Dear Mr. Rodriguez,
• Dear Dr. Okafor,

If you are unsure about the person's preferred title or pronouns, drop the title entirely and use their full name:

• Dear Jordan Taylor,
• Dear Alex Kim,

When to use a first name only: In very casual industries (startups, creative agencies, some tech companies) or when you have had prior informal contact with the person. When in doubt, default to the more formal option. Nobody has ever lost a job for being too polite.

Scenario 2: You Know the Department but Not the Name

Sometimes you can identify the team or department that will review your application, but you cannot pin down a specific person. This is still better than a fully generic greeting because it shows awareness of the company's structure.

Format: "Dear [Department] Hiring Manager,"

Examples:

• Dear Marketing Hiring Manager,
• Dear Engineering Recruitment Team,
• Dear Product Design Hiring Committee,

Scenario 3: You Know Nothing

Despite your best efforts, you cannot find a name, a department, or even a vague clue about who will read your letter. This happens more often than career advice blogs admit, especially with large companies that route applications through centralised HR teams.

Format: "Dear Hiring Manager,"

This is the universally accepted default. It is professional, neutral, and no one will hold it against you. It is not exciting, but it is safe.

Avoid the temptation to get creative with generic greetings. "Dear Future Colleague" and "Dear Awesome Team" might feel personable, but they read as try-hard in most professional contexts.

How to Find the Hiring Manager's Name

Before you default to "Dear Hiring Manager," spend 10 to 15 minutes trying to find a specific name. A personalised greeting is always stronger, and the research itself often gives you useful context for the rest of your letter.

Method 1: LinkedIn Search

This is the most reliable method. Search for the company on LinkedIn, then filter employees by the department you are applying to. Look for titles like "Head of [Department]," "Director of [Department]," "[Department] Manager," or "Talent Acquisition Manager."

Pro tip: If the company has fewer than 200 employees, you can often scroll through the entire employee list. For larger companies, combine the company name with department-specific keywords in LinkedIn's search bar.

Method 2: The Company Website

Check the "About Us," "Our Team," or "Leadership" pages. Many companies list their department heads or management team with photos and titles. Smaller companies often list everyone. Even if the specific hiring manager is not listed, you might find the department head, which is usually a safe bet.

Method 3: Call the Front Desk

This feels old-fashioned, but it works. Call the company's main phone number and say something like:

"Hi, I am applying for the [Job Title] position and I would like to address my cover letter to the right person. Could you tell me who manages the [Department] team?"

Receptionists are often happy to share this information. It is not a secret, and the fact that you bothered to call already puts you ahead of most applicants.

Method 4: Job Posting Clues

Read the job posting carefully. Sometimes it includes phrases like "You will report to the VP of Engineering" or "This role sits within the Data Science team led by Dr. Sarah Mitchell." The contact email might also include a name (e.g., j.smith@company.com).

Check whether the posting was shared on LinkedIn by a specific person. That person is often the hiring manager or a close collaborator.

Method 5: Mutual Connections

If you were referred to the position, ask your contact who the hiring manager is. If you know someone at the company (even tangentially), a quick message asking "Who should I address my cover letter to for the [Role] position?" is perfectly reasonable.

Greeting Examples for Every Situation

Here is a comprehensive reference table covering the most common scenarios you will encounter:

Standard Professional Greetings

Academic and Research Positions

Academic applications follow stricter conventions. Getting the title wrong in academia is a much bigger deal than in corporate settings, because titles represent years of earned credentials. This matters most when you are cold-emailing a prospective PhD supervisor, covered in our guide to applying for a PhD in the UK.

Creative and Informal Industries

Design studios, advertising agencies, startups, and some tech companies tend toward a more relaxed tone. Matching the company's communication style shows cultural awareness.

How to gauge formality: Look at the company's job posting, website copy, and social media. If the posting says "We are looking for a rockstar designer to join our crew," a "Hi" greeting is probably fine. If it says "The successful candidate will demonstrate competence in," stick with "Dear."

Multiple Recipients

Sometimes your cover letter will be reviewed by more than one person, and you know who they are.

Gender-Neutral Options

When you know someone's name but are unsure of their pronouns or preferred title, you have several respectful options:

The key principle: When you are unsure, removing the title entirely (and using the full name) is always better than guessing. "Dear Morgan Riley" is professional and makes no assumptions. Nobody will be offended by the absence of a title, but the wrong title can make a genuinely poor impression.

Greetings You Should Never Use

Some greetings were standard decades ago but now signal that your application materials are outdated, or worse, that you have simply copy-pasted a template without thinking.

Why "To Whom It May Concern" Is the Worst Offender

This phrase deserves special attention because it is still surprisingly common. Originally designed for open-ended reference letters (where you genuinely did not know who would read them), it has no place in a targeted job application.

Using "To Whom It May Concern" tells the reader three things:

1. You did not research the company or the role.
2. You are probably sending the same letter to dozens of employers.
3. Your application materials may be outdated in other ways too.

Most hiring managers prefer a direct, professional greeting like "Dear Hiring Manager" over outdated alternatives. It is a small change that costs nothing and immediately modernises your application.

Title and Honorific Rules

Titles seem simple until you get one wrong. Here is when to use each:

Mr. and Ms.

Mr. is used for men. Ms. is the default for women and is always safe because it does not indicate marital status.

Never use "Mrs." or "Miss" unless you are absolutely certain the person prefers it. "Mrs." indicates a married woman, and "Miss" indicates an unmarried one. Both are considered outdated in professional correspondence because a woman's marital status is irrelevant to her professional role. "Ms." avoids the issue entirely.

Dr.

Use "Dr." for anyone with a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, EdD, JD in some contexts) or a medical degree. In academic and research settings, this is particularly important. Failing to use "Dr." when writing to someone who holds a doctorate can come across as dismissive of their credentials.

When in doubt, use "Dr." It is better to over-honour someone than to under-honour them. If someone has a PhD and prefers not to use the title, they will not be offended. If they prefer it and you omit it, they might be.

Professor

"Professor" is used for academics who hold a faculty position at a university. In many countries, "Professor" specifically refers to full professors (the highest academic rank), but in cover letters for academic positions, it is generally safe to use for anyone in a teaching or research role at a university.

Do not combine titles. It is "Dear Professor Chen" or "Dear Dr. Chen," never "Dear Professor Dr. Chen" (though this convention exists in some European countries, it is not standard in English-language correspondence).

When to Drop the Title Entirely

Drop the title and use the full name when:

• You are unsure of the person's gender or preferred pronouns.
• You cannot determine whether they hold a doctoral degree.
• The company culture is clearly informal.
• You have had prior casual contact with the person.

"Dear Alex Morgan" is always professional. It makes no assumptions and respects the reader.

Email Cover Letter vs Formal Cover Letter Greetings

The format of your application affects the greeting conventions. An email cover letter and a formal attached cover letter serve the same purpose, but they follow slightly different rules.

Formal Cover Letter (Attached as PDF or Document)

This is the traditional format: a standalone document with your contact details, the date, the employer's address, and the greeting. It is what you attach when a job posting says "please submit a cover letter."

Greeting conventions:

• Always use "Dear [Name/Title],"
• Include the full formal header (your address, date, their address) above the greeting.
• Use a comma after the greeting in British English. (American English sometimes uses a colon, but a comma is universally accepted.)
• The greeting sits on its own line, followed by a blank line before the first paragraph.

Example layout:

Sarah Mitchell
sarah.mitchell@email.com | 07700 900123

15 September 2026

Ms. Rachel Torres
Head of Product
Acme Technologies Ltd
45 Innovation Drive
London EC2A 1PQ

Dear Ms. Torres,

I am writing to apply for the Senior Product Manager position...

Email Cover Letter (Body of the Email)

When you send your cover letter in the body of the email (rather than as an attachment), the formatting is more relaxed. Your email signature replaces the formal header, and the greeting can be slightly less formal.

Greeting conventions:

• "Dear [Name]," is still the safest option.
• "Hi [Name]," is acceptable if you have had prior email contact or the company is informal.
• Skip the formal address block. Your email signature handles your contact details.
• The subject line matters as much as the greeting. See our guide on how to email a resume for subject line templates.

Example layout:

Subject: Application for Senior Product Manager - Sarah Mitchell

Dear Ms. Torres,

I am writing to express my interest in the Senior Product Manager
position posted on your careers page...

Best regards,
Sarah Mitchell
07700 900123
linkedin.com/in/sarahmitchell

Quick Comparison

Matching Your Greeting to Your Closing

Your greeting and closing should be at a similar level of formality. A mismatch creates a jarring reading experience.

The traditional British rule: Use "Yours sincerely" when you have used the person's name in the greeting, and "Yours faithfully" when you have not (e.g., "Dear Hiring Manager"). In practice, "Kind regards" works in both situations and has become the most common professional closing.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Misspelling the Name

Nothing undermines a personalised greeting faster than getting the name wrong. Double-check the spelling against the job posting, the company website, and the person's LinkedIn profile. Pay attention to:

• Unusual spellings (Micheal vs Michael, Sara vs Sarah, Johansson vs Johansen)
• Hyphenated surnames (Dear Ms. Taylor-Smith, not Dear Ms. Taylor)
• Names with prefixes (Dear Mr. van der Berg, not Dear Mr. Berg)

Using an Outdated Name

People change their names. If you found the hiring manager's name through a source that might be outdated (an old press release, a years-old LinkedIn connection), verify it against a current source.

Assuming Gender from the Name

Names do not always indicate gender. "Andrea" is typically female in English-speaking countries but male in Italy. "Robin," "Jordan," "Alex," and dozens of other names are gender-neutral. When in doubt, use the full name without a title.

Over-researching and Getting Creepy

There is a line between "I researched who leads the engineering team" and "I found your personal blog from 2015 and noticed you like hiking." Stick to professional sources: LinkedIn, the company website, and the job posting.

Forgetting the Comma

In British English, the greeting always ends with a comma. "Dear Ms. Chen" without the comma looks incomplete. It is a tiny detail, but tiny details matter in a document that is supposed to demonstrate your attention to detail.

Putting It All Together

Here is a quick-reference checklist to run through before you finalise your greeting:

1. Did you try to find the hiring manager's name? Spend 10 to 15 minutes on LinkedIn, the company website, and the job posting before defaulting to "Dear Hiring Manager."

2. Is the name spelled correctly? Cross-reference at least two sources.

3. Is the title appropriate? Use "Dr." for doctorates, "Professor" for academics, "Ms." as the default for women, and drop the title if you are unsure.

4. Does the formality match the company culture? A startup's job posting written in first person with exclamation marks probably warrants a "Hi." A law firm's posting does not.

5. Does the greeting match the closing? "Dear Ms. Chen" pairs with "Yours sincerely," not "Cheers!"

6. Is the greeting free of gendered assumptions? If you do not know someone's gender, use their full name or a neutral option.

If you are building your cover letter from scratch and want a tool that handles the formatting for you, JobSprout generates professionally formatted cover letters with appropriate greetings based on the information you provide. It also tailors the body of the letter to the specific job description, which saves time when you are applying to multiple roles.

For more cover letter guidance, explore our short cover letter examples for templates you can adapt in minutes, or browse cover letter examples by industry to see how greetings and tone vary across different fields.

Final Thoughts

The cover letter greeting is a small detail that carries disproportionate weight. It is the first signal a hiring manager receives about your professionalism, your attention to detail, and whether you bothered to research their company.

The rules are straightforward: use a name when you can find one, default to "Dear Hiring Manager" when you cannot, match your formality to the company culture, and never use "To Whom It May Concern."

Everything that follows the greeting matters more, of course. Your achievements, your fit for the role, your enthusiasm for the company. But the greeting is the door. Get it right, and the reader walks through it with a favourable first impression. Get it wrong, and they are already questioning your judgment before the first paragraph.

Spend the extra 10 minutes finding a name. Use a title that respects the reader. And when all else fails, "Dear Hiring Manager" will never let you down.