Cover letter salutations

Not sure how to open your cover letter? Each guide below covers one greeting — when it works, when to avoid it, and what to write instead of a generic line.

"Dear Hiring Manager" — When It Works and What Beats It

Acceptable fallback — find the name first when you can.

Every common greeting, with a verdict

Find your greeting in the left column. The verdict is the whole answer — follow the link only when you want the examples and the alternatives.

Cover letter salutations ranked from safest to weakest
Greeting	Verdict	Use it when
Dear [First Name]	Strongest option. Always beats a generic line.	You found the hiring manager's name. This is worth ten minutes of looking.
Dear Hiring Manager	Acceptable fallback — find the name first when you can.	No name is findable after a genuine search.
Dear Hiring Team	Fine at committee-hired roles, vague everywhere else.	The posting names a team rather than a manager, or several people share the decision.
Dear Recruiter	Correct when a named recruiter owns the process.	A recruiter posted the role or emailed you first.
Dear Recruiting Team / Dear Recruitment Team	Safe and neutral, but it signals you did not look anyone up.	Agency postings and large-volume hiring where no individual is named.
Dear Talent Acquisition Team	Accurate at large companies, stiff at small ones.	The company's careers page uses that exact department name. Otherwise prefer the recruiter's name.
Dear Recruitment Manager	Correct grammar, uncommon in U.S. hiring — prefer a name.	UK and EU postings that use the title explicitly.
Dear Hiring Committee	Right in academia and panel hiring, odd in industry.	Faculty, research, grant, and formal panel applications.
Hello Hiring Manager	Warmer than Dear, weaker in formal industries.	Startups and tech, where a stiff greeting reads as a template.
Attn: Hiring Manager	Reads like a mailing label, not a letter.	Physical mail and forms with a routing field. Not in email.
Dear Human Resources / Dear HR Manager	Aims at the wrong department — HR rarely decides the hire.	Benefits, payroll, and internal policy questions. Not for applying to a role.
Dear Hiring Personnel	Grammatically fine, sounds automated.	Effectively never — pick any other row.
Dear Manager / Dear Employer	Too vague to land. Suggests a mass send.	Not recommended. Use the team name if you have nothing else.
Dear Sir or Madam	Dated and gendered — avoid it.	No modern use case. Replace with Dear Hiring Manager at minimum.
To Whom It May Concern	The weakest option on this page.	Never for a job application. It tells the reader the letter was not written for them.

A greeting only settles the first line. If what you are writing is a direct note to the person doing the hiring rather than a cover letter, the rest of it is covered in emailing a hiring manager.