Every career expert tells you to address your cover letter to a specific person, right? They warn letters with generic salutations like, Dear HR Manager, are sure to end up in the trash bin. But some technology savvy companies make this next to impossible by not listing staff member names online, or by obfuscating HR titles on LinkedIn.
Solution? Time warp back to the 1980’s and use the telephone. Here’s a link to over 900 US companies from GetHuman.com with tips and tricks for getting around their automated voicemail services. So, next time you’re unsure who to address your cover letter to, use this list to get a live person and just ask.
You need to find the decision maker, the person that you would report to if you worked for any of the target companies. Sometimes you can use the database that you constructed the list from or you can Google the title and company. Say you want to be a VP of Operations, you might be reporting to the COO. Google “XYZ Company COO (or Chief Operations Officer)” and see what comes up. There is also Linkedin and paid services like Jigsaw and ZoomInfo that you can access online. In any case, before you send a resume to a potential contact you should call the main switchboard operator to make sure the name and address are correct. No matter what database you use there are errors. Information is perishable and changes all the time.