questions for those more experienced than I

[dchenes]

When you find a job that sounds like it suits you right down to the ground, what do you do other than apply for it, make yourself sound as ideal as possible and start praying like crazy? And when they say "send cover letter and resume to resumes@xyz.com", how do you address the cover letter? Not only isn't there a specific person mentioned, there isn't even a department mentioned.

(Linguistic QA, in Brookline. Medical. Into English. Pretty much everything I wanted, all in one package.)

It's absolutely amazing how much contradictory advice there is out there regarding how to write cover letters.

Comments

[kaasirpent]

There's always brutal honesty: "Hi, I'm ________ and I am sending a resume for the position of _________________ and I need the name of the person to whom it should be sent." :)

The unemployment office told me to go to the public library with the largest business section (they gave me directions) and look up the company in the appropriate book(s) and get the names of various people that way. Of course, the unemployment people are still operating out of the late 70's. Nowadays, a company changes personnel more often than every 17 years, so by the time the books are published, the person named as Director of HR is probably working for another company.

[siercia]

But along, similar lines, root through the company's website if they have one, and see if you can deduce it. If not, Dear Sit or Madam is generally accepted.