Why this matters less than most people assume
Job seekers often spend a disproportionate amount of time worrying about the perfect salutation, when the greeting itself has little influence on whether a letter gets read. What matters far more is what comes after it. That said, a few options are clearly better than others, and a couple of common choices actively signal a lack of effort.
Try to find the name before giving up
Before defaulting to a generic greeting, spend a few minutes trying to find the actual hiring manager or recruiter's name. Check the job posting itself, the company's team or leadership page, and the profile of whoever posted the role if it was shared on a professional network. If a recruiter's name appears anywhere in the process, such as in an email thread or on the platform where you applied, use it. A correctly named greeting is always the strongest option when you can get it right.
Safe options when you genuinely cannot find a name
When no name is available, a few greetings work well without sounding stiff or outdated:
- Dear Hiring Manager
- Dear [Team Name] Team, for example Dear Engineering Hiring Team
- Dear [Company Name] Recruiting Team
These are neutral, professional, and do not risk getting a name wrong.
Greetings worth avoiding
A few options tend to work against you. To Whom It May Concern reads as outdated and impersonal to most modern hiring teams. Dear Sir or Madam carries the same problem and also makes an unnecessary assumption about gender. Guessing a name incorrectly, for example addressing a letter to a manager who left the company months ago, is worse than using a generic greeting, since it signals you did not verify basic information.
What to do if you find a name but are unsure how to address it
If you find a name but are unsure of preferred title or gender, the safest choice is to use the full name without a prefix: Dear Jordan Smith rather than guessing at Mr. or Ms. This avoids an incorrect assumption while still being more personal than a fully generic greeting.
A methodical way to search for the name
Start with the job posting itself, since some companies list the hiring manager or recruiter directly. Next, check the company's careers page or team page, which sometimes lists names by department. If the role was shared on a professional network, look at who posted or shared it, since that is often the recruiter or hiring manager themselves. Finally, if you were referred by someone at the company, ask them directly, since they usually know or can find out quickly. Spending five minutes across these four places usually resolves the question one way or another.
What if you find more than one plausible name
Sometimes a search turns up a recruiter's name and a separate hiring manager's name, and it is not obvious who will actually read the letter first. In this situation, addressing the letter to the recruiter is usually the safer choice, since recruiters are typically the first point of contact and often forward strong applications to the hiring manager directly. If truly unsure, a neutral greeting like Dear Hiring Team avoids picking the wrong individual while still sounding intentional rather than generic.
Why job seekers overweight this particular detail
The greeting is the first thing written and the first thing agonized over, which can create a sense that it matters more than it does. In reality, a hiring manager who opens a letter addressed to Dear Hiring Manager and then reads a specific, well argued case for the candidate is not going to dismiss the application over the greeting alone. Spend a reasonable, bounded amount of time on finding a name, then move your attention to the content of the letter itself, which carries far more weight in the actual decision.
Keep the greeting consistent with how you refer to the company elsewhere
If you reference the hiring manager or team by name anywhere else in your application, such as in a referral message or a follow-up email, make sure the name and spelling are consistent throughout. A misspelled name in the greeting, easy to happen when copying from an uncertain source, is arguably worse than a generic greeting, since it suggests carelessness with a detail you clearly tried to get right.
A final double check before sending
Whichever greeting you land on, read it one more time immediately before submitting, separate from your general proofread of the whole letter. Confirm the spelling of any name used, confirm the company name in the greeting or nearby lines matches the actual company you are applying to, and confirm you have not accidentally left a placeholder like Dear [Hiring Manager Name] unfilled, which happens more often than most applicants expect when working from a template.
A small detail that shapes a disproportionate first impression
Because the greeting sits at the very top of the page, it colors how a reader approaches everything that follows, even if only subconsciously. A clean, correct, appropriately chosen greeting sets a small but real expectation of care that a strong letter then goes on to confirm.
Putting the greeting decision in perspective
None of this means the greeting deserves more attention than the rest of the letter. It means it deserves a reasonable, bounded effort, get it right if you can find the information easily, use a solid generic fallback if you cannot, and then move on to the parts of the letter that actually determine whether you get an interview.
Once you settle on an approach for a given application, do not second guess it repeatedly. Pick the best available option within a few minutes and direct the rest of your energy toward the content that will actually make the case for you.