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- Careers & Jobs
How to Address a Cover Letter: From Heading to Date to Salutation + More
We’ll discuss how to address a cover letter with examples, and then we’ll look at specific parts of each cover letter address area in detail..
Writing a cover letter might be one of those things that make you want to bang your head on your keyboard.
Fortunately, though, addressing a cover letter is a piece of cake (we’ll help you with the other bits in a different article).
In this short article, we’ll walk you through how to address a cover letter effectively and easily, with examples, and then we’ll guide you through the specific parts of each cover letter address area in more detail.
Let’s get to it!
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How to Address a Cover Letter
Here’s an example of how to address a cover letter:
Your First & Last Name Your Address Line 1 Your Address Line 2 January 1, 2021 Jessica Schwartz Human Resources Manager Name of Prospective Company Prospective Company Address Line 1 Prospective Company Address Line 2 Dear Jessica:
And there you have it!
As you can see from the cover letter address sample above, it’s really quite simple. Feel free to copy and paste that into your cover letter opening and tweak to your needs!
Next, we’ll go into detail about each of the various subsections of the cover letter address area.
Related Read : 10+ Cover Letter Tips & Tricks Sure to Score Interviews
Structure of a Cover Letter Address Section
1. cover letter heading (sender’s information).
At the very top of your cover letter, in what’s called the cover letter header, you’ll place your contact details.
As we showed you above, it’s quite simple:
Your First & Last Name Your Address Line 1 Your Address Line 2
If you want, you can include your phone number or email address, as well.
Cover letters follow a business letter or formal letter format, but, you don’t have to necessarily stick to the styling of the example above. If you have a stylized heading with your name and contact details from your resume contact information section, feel free to use the same heading here!
However, for the remainder of the cover letter, stick as close to the business letter format as possible.
2. The Date
The entirety of addressing a cover letter is quite simple, and that’s true for the date as well.
Here’s how to add a date on a cover letter:
January 31, 2022
Just remember to leave a line break space both above and below the date to keep things looking neat and organized.
Related Read : Career Glossary: 45+ Job Terms, HR Vocab & Employment Words to Know
3. Inside Address (Recipient’s Information)
After the date, it’s time to add the recipient’s information, also known in formal letter writing as the “inside address.”
As we showed you above, here’s how to write the company’s info:
Jessica Schwartz Human Resources Manager Name of Prospective Company Prospective Company Address Line 1 Prospective Company Address Line 2
We start with the name of the person you are addressing the cover letter to, usually the HR manager or hiring supervisor, followed by their official title at the company. Do your best to find someone’s name so it is tailored by researching the company and its LinkedIn profile.
If you still can’t find someone’s name, simply put “Hiring Manager” or “ATTN: Hiring Manager” above the company name and address.
4. Salutation
The last part of the cover letter address section before reaching the body is the salutation.
And here’s how simple that is:
Dear Jessica:
Easy as that!
You can tweak that a bit, if you prefer not to use “dear,” for example. You could also choose to use their last name (“Dear Ms. Schwartz”) or their full name. However, in most cases, I think the first name is most powerful (and we’re in the 2020s now, as well).
Finally, use a colon after the name and you’re through!
Related Read : Resume Sections: 10+ Things to Include on a Resume to Land Interviews
Well, that’s it for our guide on how to address a cover letter, and we hope it helps answer all your questions about addressing cover letters right. Got any further questions or feedback about how to format the address on a cover letter? Let us know below in the comments, and thanks for reading!
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thank you for this article, Goodwall! It’s easy, simple, and so useful for me, because I search for a job right now and have to send out many cover letters. Wish me luck 🙂
Thanks for your comment, Anastasia, and for stopping by! I’m so happy if it helped, and I wish you the best of luck on your job search!
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