Cover Letter Tip: Male or Female?

How do you handle the cover letter salutation when the hiring manager’s first name doesn’t indicate a clear gender? The best bet is to find out for sure, like by contacting the employer (ask a receptionist – you can be anonymous!) or doing a Google search. Digital Inspiration suggests another way – doing a name search on Facebook and seeing which gender is prevalent in the search results. Here’s a link to the Digital Inspiration post:

“Is This Person Male or Female? Identify Gender from the Name”
Amit Agarwal cautions that this technique is not foolproof. If you’re not sure, you can use the first and last name in the salutation without specifying a gender, like this: Dear Praveen Gupta:
By Kim Isaacs and courtesy of ResumePower blog.