A cover letter is like an advertisement campaign — just like an attractive and catchy advertisement persuades buyers to learn more about a product (and later buy it), an attractive and persuading cover letter catches the attention of the employers and urges them to look into your resume and consider you as a potential asset to the organisation. And since your cover letter is probably the only document that talks about more than just your percentages, you would want it to be special and informative. Try this — introduce yourself in this letter as a successful, competitive and talented employee worth having in an organisation that intends to grow and prosper. Sounds tricky? Well, that’s cover letter for you. And as if writing a cover letter was not enough to give job seekers restless nights, now they also have job-ads which mention no addressee in particular. At times, companies provide only the time, date and venue of the interview along with some details of the job profile and a random contact number — no name of the person in-charge. This is when the tricky cover letter becomes downright nightmarish. But please, don’t try to escape the problem by not writing a cover letter — it is a must — instead, just browse through the next section for helpful tips.
Addressing A Cover Letter Without A Name
Addressing The Unknown
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The best way to deal with this issue is to address the letter ‘To whomsoever it may concern’. This phrase can be used to start the cover letter, but addressing someone with this phrase may, at times, be considered offensive and disrespectful. Therefore, a better way to address the cover letter to an unknown person would be ‘Respected Sir/Madam’. Make sure to include both ‘sir’ and ‘madam’ for you can’t be sure who the in-charge would be.
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You might also face a situation where, although you do not know the name of the people you need to address but are aware of their posts. In such cases, you can address the cover letter to ‘The Post of the person’ (e.g., The Hiring Manager) along with the company’s name. If you read in an advertisment or if you are aware of the fact that the HR of the particular company is responsible for recruitment (i.e. the job is not outsourced), then you can use ‘Respected HR’ of the ‘company’s name’ as the opening address.
Make An Impression
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If you wish to create a long lasting impression and stand out of the crowd then take some trouble and start researching for a name to address. It might take a little time and some furious net surfing but if you wish to beat the competition, you need to take it to the next level. No pain, no gain!
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You can make use of simple tools like reverse fax directories to search for the contact details of the company — reverse fax directories are available online for free. Once you get the reverse directory for the area, key in the fax number provided by the company and, using this number, the directory will provide you the details of the company holding the fax number. You might have to cross check the findings with other reverse directories to be sure that the details are correct.
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If you are unable to get desired results from the reverse fax directories, try a local business directory. Make use of the information provided in the job-ad for finding information about the company in the local directory. One way to narrow down your search is to use the area code of the fax number to figure out which city is the company located in.
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If, even after trying everything, you are not able to find out any details of the company, look for local business directories in the city library, pick up the directory of the industry under which you believe the company falls and look for the company’s name — these directories are generally alphabetically ordered. Once you find the company, you can cross check the validity of your search by tallying the fax number given in the job-ad with the fax number provided in the directory.
These simple tips can help you with the cover letter even when there is no name mentioned in the job advertisement.
