How to address a cover letter to a stranger

The cover letter is very important because it is something that represents you professionally. You only have one chance to make a good first impression, and the cover letter is a great way to get off to a good start. However, there are some problems that may arise when starting to write a cover letter.

It may be the case that you do not know the name of the person you are going to address and in those cases you can complicate your task of getting the perfect letter that gives the best possible impression. Although it is not the best possible scenario there are ways to be courteous and make a good impression even without knowing the name of the person to whom it is addressed.

In the following article we will explain how to address a cover letter to a stranger .

Steps to follow:

one

We are not going to cheat, it is always better to know the name, rank and position of the person who is going to have to read that letter. Sending a blind letter, that is, to a stranger, can have some negative consequences. Depending on the case, it may seem that you have not tried enough, that you have not bothered to investigate and try to find out what name that person has. Today you have a lot of tools at your disposal, on the Internet you will surely find the information you need. If you still can not find that name, there are ways to write a letter and be professional.

two

Never try to guess the gender of the person you are addressing, it is always preferable to sin of little specific to venture to think that being in one position or another must be male or female and then wrong. A woman can be responsible for a carpentry and a man can be the head of nursing.

A good way to address that person without paying attention to their gender is to name it by the title they have within the company . For example, a good initial greeting from the letter could be "Dear hiring manager" or "Dear Customer Service Representative". At the same time that you are being precise and professional in the treatment you avoid being able to screw up giving a name or wrong treatment.

3

Something that you should also avoid is using greetings that are too nonspecific or too generic. Every letter must be addressed to a person, must interpellate and, the reader, must understand that it is written for him to read it. The classic "to whom it corresponds" is not a good option at the time of writing an acarta to a stranger, because even if you do not know his name, he must understand that you do know who he is. If the reader has no clue to whom the letter is directed, it is much more likely that it ends up in the garbage can.

Another greeting to avoid are those too friendly, like Hello! since it would denote a lack of professionalism that can be counterproductive.

4

You should use a courteous greeting . A classic approach, shows good manners and efforts to maintain the label. A good greeting that is considered acceptable is "Dear Sir / Madam." It is a quick and useful greeting that deals with an unknown recipient in a traditional way. In addition, as we have said previously, this also shows that a specific gender is not being assumed.

5

If you want to give your letter a little formal touch and continue to maintain personal contact you can add an "Dear Mr." or "Dear Mrs." and combine it with the person's title. Just start the greeting in this way, if you are sure that the person is a woman or a man. You must address the woman with "Señora", only if you know that the lady you are trying to contact is married. The final greeting would be something like: "Dear Ms. Hiring Manager".

6

If in addition to knowing how to address you want to learn to write the rest of the letter correctly, we invite you to read the following article on this topic: how to write a cover letter or how to make a simple cover letter.