To Whom It May Concern is an old letter greeting, but it is still in use. Whether it is a business letter or a job letter, people opt for it. The use of this greeting in an office set-up is required when you don’t know the name of the person.

To Whom It May Concern Meaning?

In a business correspondence, you must need a salutation through which you address a person. Commonly, you use the name of the person like Dear Rick or Dear Sarah.

 However, To Whom It May Concern has been used as a letter salutation in business correspondence when you don’t have any idea about the name of a person you are writing a letter to.

Sometimes, you are writing a letter, and you don’t know the name of the person who is going to read it. So, instead of merely writing “Dear,” you can opt for “To Whom It May Concern.” 

An alternative way would be not using any salutation in the letter.

When to Use it? To Whom It May Concern :

You are going to write To Whom It May Concern as the first line of your letter, give a space, and then start the first paragraph of your letter.

You can use this letter salutation when you are writing:

• A business letter
• An application Letter
• A Recommendation Letter
• A Notice
• A Testimonial
• A letter of Interest
• A Cold Email
• A Business Email
• A Promotional Correspondence

To Whom It May Concern Capitalization

Make sure you must appropriately capitalize this letter greeting, else it will leave a harmful impact on a person who is going to read it. 

You will Capitalize the first letter of every word like this To Whom It May Concern:

What to Do When you Don’t use it?

When if you don’t want to use this salutation, then you got only two choices. Find the name of a person or opt for some alternatives.

Try three ways and find The Name of a person you are going to write a letter.

1. Contact Administrative Assistant

No matter if you are going to write a business letter or job application, you can easily find the name of the person by contacting the office assistant. You can make a call in the office and get the name of the person from the assistant.

Do you what skills are Required for Clerk Jobs?

Why is it essential to address a person with a name? Simple ! it will increase the chances that the person would open and read your letter.

2. Search on LinkedIn

Every job seeker must have a complete know-how of Linkedin. While you are sending an application, make sure to read the name of the person on a job description. Is there no name for a job ad? What to do?

Well, you can make the most from the LinkedIn Search option. You can find a recruiter on LinkedIn quite effortlessly. 

When you only know the name of the company, then search it on LinkedIn and then click on its employee list; you can get the name of the hiring manager and recruiter from there.

What are some Best To Whom It May Concern Alternatives?

Here are some other solutions you can consider, when you fail in finding the name of the person.

Explore Company Website

In case you don’t see a company profile on Linkedin, then another option to try is to visit the Company website. On it, you can check either go to the Contact Us page or check the Employee page. It won’t be tricky for you to extract the name of the recruiter or headhunter that you are going to use in your job application letter.

• Dear Hiring Manager
• Dear Recruitment Department
• Dear HeadHunter
• Dear Recruiter
• Dear Human Resource Department 
• Dear HR Department
• Dear Personal Manager
• Dear HR Manager
• Most Respected Recruiters

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You can also use the name of the department, and you are going to be a part of in this way, Dear Sale Department ( if you are applying for a sales job) or Dear Product Department (when you are applying for a Production team job).

Another idea is to use this format Dear (name of Department) Manager, such as Dear Sale manager, Dear Digital marketing manager, etc.

Check Some Entry Level Jobs of Digital Marketing Manager

Bottom-Line

To Whom It May Concern is an outdated letter salutation that you shouldn’t use. Try knowing the name of the person you are going to address through your letter by using three ideas I shared above. In case it’s a tricky task, then another thing to do is to use best To Whom It May Concern Alternatives. In case you don’t mind sounding formal and ancient, then it’s your choice, but what you shouldn’t miss is the correct capitalization of this greeting.