

What if you cannot track down a contact name for your cover email? Use a generic salutation, such as Dear Hiring Manager, Dear Recruiting Manager or Dear Human Resources Professional. Yuanqing.Ī final comment on people’s names: Be sure to spell them correctly. His surname is Yang and his first name is Yuanqing (in Mandarin, the family name is written first), so if you are addressing him, you would write Dear Mr. For example, the CEO of Lenovo is Yang Yuanqing. If you’re unfamiliar with someone’s name, be sure you don’t confuse the first name with the family name, which can easily happen in today’s global business environment, depending in part on the languages you know. When applying for a job, sometimes you want to start off formally, even though you may take a less formal tone in subsequent written exchanges.

While it is increasingly common to see greetings without the "Dear" in business, it is less formal.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN EMAIL FULL
If you're unsure of the person’s gender and can’t find out, write the full name, as in Dear Chu Li or Dear Chris Beltran. Write a formal greeting, such as Dear Ms. Use our tips below on how to start your cover letter with a proper greeting and sign off with a polished signature. So how else can you distinguish your communications? Appropriate openings and closings that convey professionalism and polish. In a tight job market flooded with resumes and cover letters, it’s a given that your documents and messages need to be error-free.

Look at it from the recipient’s perspective. You are not going to go to jail for using Dear Sir or Madam salutation on your cover letter, but you should do everything possible to avoid using it. Should you use Dear Madam/Sir in your cover letters?Įven though a cover letter should be written in a formal way, that does not mean you should use a gender-neutral Dear Sir Madam type of salutation.Īs much as possible, you should address your cover letter directly to the intended recipient. Other times, you may be emailing a generic email address and that’s when it may be a better practice to research and find out to whom you are looking to address your email so you make direct salutations to that person.įor example, in some cases, you’ll need to send an email to a department for general support, that’s when it would make more sense to use the Dear Sir or Dear Madam, although you may want to use the To Whom It May Concern phrase instead if you don’t know who you are sending the email to. Quite often, by looking at a person’s email address, their name will be evident. In most cases, if you are sending an email to a person, you should use the person’s name.

That will be out of place and not appropriate. Should you use Dear Madam or Sir in your emails?Īs a general rule, you should avoid using Dear Madam or Sir in your emails.Įmails should be written in a less formal tone than cover letters making it more relevant to avoid using phrases like Dear Sir or Madam or Dear Madam/Sir.Ĭan you imaging an email sent to you with a Dear Sir or better yet, Dear Sir or Madam?
