Ask a hiring manager what they want most to see in your cover letter, and you'll hear one answer: "my name". 14.5 million people are throwing elbows to get at the few good jobs left. When you're writing cover letters, addressing them to "Dear Sir or Madame" could give it a free ride back to the bottom of the look-at-these-later pile.

Find the name of the specific individual who's hiring, and you automatically get at least a little extra cred. From the company's perspective, you take initiative, do your homework, and care about relationships. Welcome to short list for interviews.

But how do you find the hiring manager's name? Here are the three most sure fire ways:

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site in the world. It has over 45 million members in over 200 countries. You can find executives from every Fortune 500 company, but more importantly, you can find the names of the people who hire. Simply search on the name of a company and then click on it for more information. Popular profiles are automatically displayed for recruiters, human resources personnel, and staffing - just the people you need to find if you're writing cover letters. If you don't know which person to contact pick one and ask who the recruiter is for the position you're interested in.

2. Jigsaw

Jigsaw is an online directory of company contacts and information. They're only about a third the size of LinkedIn, but what they lack in quantity they make up for in detail. Every Jigsaw business contact is complete with hard-to-find direct dial phone numbers and email addresses.

3. Ask a Friend

If you know someone at the company see if they can find out a name for you. Or use your own social network on FaceBook or MySpace to find someone who might have a connection to the company. It's a social networking world. All you need is one name to find the next link in the chain.

Listen, you're facing a huge opportunity. Every job applicant you're competing against is doing the same thing as you - writing cover letters and resumes. And none of them is leveraging the power of a personal letter nearly as much as they could. Imagine your advantage when you consistently knock it out of the park. Here are your two steps to take:



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