I am not Andy Lester. I do not have piles and piles of advice on getting hired. Every time I go through the hiring process, though, I gain a bit more wisdom to share with applicants. Here is some for you today.
If your application begins with this line, you are immediately junked:
Dear Prospective Employer:
That is all.
Dear [ name of someone who does not work at this company ]:
EPIC FAIL
Re:Or Even Worse
kjones4 on 2008-07-19T02:36:54
Heh. I'm not so harsh on generic salutations. Admittedly, I've had to construct a cover letter maybe 3 times in my 25 years in the work force, but each of those times I was a little puzzled about what I should say on the first line. Should it be generic, non-generic, gender specific, etc.... I mean, the letter might be circulated to several different folks before a decision is made to call me in for an interview. I think I once wrote a snarky salutation of "Dear Person who is interested in hiring a competent Sys Admin." Generic salutations don't bother me as much as generic "please hire me" paragraph. I like to see some specific information that tells me the applicant gave the job some serious thought.Re:Or Even Worse
sungo on 2008-07-19T03:50:45
Still, if you're going to go to the trouble of writing a cover letter, you should make sure it's addressed to someone who works there. "Dear Sir" is fine by me. "To Whom It May Concern" is even fine by me. But "Dear Mrs Sally Struthers" tells me that you are reusing a cover letter from some other interview process and lack the attention to detail required to even change a basic salutation. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the interview process.
Re:Or Even Worse
Lecar_red on 2008-07-21T18:03:51
I use "To Whom It May Concern" if I don't know the hiring manager. But it feels odd and impersonal to me but I guess the whole process often is.Maybe next time I should start it "Dear Diary,".
Re:Or Even Worse
pudge on 2008-07-31T19:47:39
Maybe next time I should start it "Dear Diary,".
That might get you moved to the top of the pile, depending on the sense of humor of the person reading it.
Has entree to all the best positions, with
2,250,000 google hits.
But one person says:
When I get addressed as "Dear Sir/Madam" in any e-mail, I know the Sender is lazy. How do I know this? Because my sites are so me. With just one or two clicks you know that "Judith" is the person behind the site. I'm not a Sir, nor do I really consider myself a Madam!
So, if one wants to contact me with a business related e-mail and uses this greeting, I know they are probably not too discriminating in who they are contacting with their offer. They just want to get their collateral in front of whomever is behind the site.
