"To Whom It May Concern"

[brettnexx]

I am applying for a Production Assistant position at a large Festival with a lot of staff members. I have the name of the contact person, but this is the person that receives all the resumes for every position that they will hire for, and (I assume) will distribute to the specific people in charge of hiring.

I'm addressing my email to the contact person. However, I'm not sure who to address my cover letter to. I've been part of debates about this before, and never got a clear answer. Do you address it to the contact person, do you put "To Whom It May Concern", or do you address it to "Production Department"? What is your preference in either sending it out, and receiving. I know a lot of people are different, and there's no concrete answer, but I would like some perspective on it.

[jcarey]

My rule is usually to address it to the person you are e-mailing it to. My thinking is that they are sending the resumes to that person for a reason, so they will be the first to read it.
If the e-mail is a departmental e-mail I will either address it to "Whom it may concern" or do some research and find the name of the Production Manager. I like to make the impression that I have done a little research and try to connect on a personal level by using names.

[BayAreaSM]

I will say that I am turned off by the "To Whom It May Concern" or "Dear Sir/Madam:" in cover letters. If you know where your resume is headed, whether it be HR, Production Management or a PSM, I'd go the extra mile and add the name - if you can find it on the website. It shows that you care about how you are represented, and it shows that you did make an effort to know something more about their company besides their job posting.

Because my name is most often mistaken for a man's name, I give bonus points to those who apply to "Ms. Reinhardt" in their cover letters to me. It only takes one Google search on my professional name to find my headshot and bio and realize that I'm a Ms. and not a Mr.

[KMC]

It's typically a good idea to take any opportunity you can to make a personal connection with someone who is making a hiring decision (or in any business transaction, for that matter).  If you know their name then use it.  If you don't know their name and can't easily find it with a bit of research I'd favor "Dear Sir or Madam" over "To whom it may concern". 

[Melissitchka]

Honestly, LinkedIn is sort of a godsend for this. It will let you find people's positions, so you could at least make an educated guess about who will be reading your resume (and what their gender is - should you ever apply to BayAreaSM's theatre ;o). It will also pop up if you have anyone in common with the company, which is nice to know. I was recently applying for a job and an old cast member I'd worked with a few years ago popped up as having a connection to that company. I shot her a message and she was cool with me name dropping her in my cover letter... and talking about her was the ice breaker during the interview.