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I'm currently job searching and writing cover letters, the job postings don't contain any information about who I'm supposed to address in my cover letter.

I went to Linkedin, looked through the employee list, and found a few employees who provide there company e-mail addresses. Would it be okay to contact them, and ask them who I should address my cover letter to or is this unprofessional?

I found this page, but it's about contacting the person directly responsible for hiring, I'm looking for the person responsible for hiring.

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What I usually do (when it is not clear who to address my application to) is that I lookup the company website/LinkedIn and pretty much any resource about the company, then I filter my results by whoever works in HR (based on their position title).

I pick the highest position (If I found multiple HR personnel in my research) and I address them about the job I found and why I am interested. And I just address it in a general way if I did not find any HR titles, something like "Dear Hiring Committee,".

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  • thanks for the suggestion, funny thing, I got a reply from one of the employees who said to address it in a general way. :D
    – user85455
    Apr 3, 2018 at 17:23
  • @AverageJoe Cool, then for now just say "Dear hiring committee" and next time you are job hunting use my method :)
    – Sandra K
    Apr 3, 2018 at 18:01
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It may not always be clear who the hiring manager/ hr representative is that will be reviewing your cover letter and resume.Ideally you will want to address it to a specific person. But if that information is left out of the posting then I would address it To Whom It May Concern.

If you search for the person on linkedin or anywhere else, you want to be absolutely sure its the person who is expecting to receive resumes and cover letters for this position. Otherwise, if you send it to the wrong person, it could be perceived as spam and not make it to the person who is a position to reach out about an interview.

After your comment, I will add that reaching out to people in the company in search of a contact for your cover letter, I would say, is not professional. It is likely that the person who you reach out to will not respond thinking its spam. If no specific person is specified in the listing and its not clear after some basic searching, using To Whom It May Concern is the way to go. The person at the company is probably expecting that.

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  • let me elaborate, I'm not looking on linkedin for the person that will read my resume, because I don't know who that is, I'm looking for someone in the company to tell me who that is, so I searched the employee list, looked for anyone who provided contact info (email), and asked them, is this unprofessional?
    – user85455
    Apr 3, 2018 at 16:53
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Find and employee of the business in a similar role, explain that you are looking to apply, ask for some feedback about the role and their experience in the business, and if they know who best to send your application to.

LinkedIn is all about networking, people love being asked stuff like this!

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  • Exactly the thought I had about this. I decided to give it a shot, and they replied!
    – user85455
    Apr 5, 2018 at 18:15
  • That's great! I hope that you get the job :)
    – AdamT
    Apr 5, 2018 at 18:47