Office administrator cover letter

Office Administrator Cover Letter (With Examples)

Office administrators are vital to keeping businesses operating smoothly. In this position, you might do anything from answering the phone and filing paperwork to managing client relationships and making sure products are delivered on time.

One of the most common responsibilities listed on job descriptions for office managers is “Other duties as assigned.” This just means that you never know what you’ll get to do on any given day, which makes this job an excellent fit for someone who likes variety and learning new things.

A job as an office administrator can also be a great way to get your foot in the door of a company. It allows you to improve your skills, demonstrate your work ethic, make connections within the organization, and get to know the company and industry. All of these make it easier to land another job at the company down the road.

Often you don’t need much more education than a high school diploma or GED to get a job as an office administrator, but some organizations prefer candidates to at least have some college under their belts.

The most valuable attribute you can have when you’re applying for a job as an office administrator, however, is being able to accurately and convincingly communicate your prowess with soft skills.

Your initiative, work ethic, and communication, interpersonal, organizational, and time management skills are what will make you a great office administrator — the company can train you in the more technical aspects once you start. You just need to show hiring managers that you have those soft skills.

While you can do this to some extent through your resume, the most effective avenue for communicating this is your cover letter.

Parts of an Office Administrator Cover Letter

1. Your contact information

2. The date

3. The recipient’s information

4. Salutation

5. Opening paragraph

6. Body paragraphs

7. Closing lines

Office Administrator Cover Letter Opening

It’s essential to write a strong opening paragraph, as these first few lines set the tone for the rest of your cover letter.

Don’t let that scare you, though. This section doesn’t need to be very long, and there are some elements that you should include that will help you fill it in quickly:

1. The name of the position you’re applying for.

2. The name of the company you’re applying to.

3. Your one to three most impressive qualifications.

Hiring managers should be able to pick up your cover letter from a stack, read your first paragraph, and know what you’re applying for and why you are a qualified candidate. Think of it as you introducing yourself to the hiring manager and giving them the highlights of why you decided to apply for this particular job.

Here’s an example of what your opening paragraph may look like:

Office Administrator Cover Letter Body

Once you have your cover letter opening down, it’s time to write the body paragraphs. This is where you get to flesh out the bullet-point lists you put on your resume. Since many of the skills you need to showcase for a position as an office manager are hard to quantify in a list, illustrating them in your cover letter is especially important.

1. Tell stories that demonstrate your soft skills. Talk about how you’ve used your communication skills to solve a conflict, organize a team of people, handle travel logistics, manage your time, or find ways to be productive during downtimes at other jobs or volunteer work.

   These are all important for hiring managers to see in your cover letter, since simply adding “communication” to the skills section of your resume doesn't tell them much about what you’re actually capable of.

2. When you’re deciding what to put in the body paragraphs of your cover letter, make sure you mirror the job description. There’s a reason why hiring managers put those qualifications on the cover letter:

   They want candidates who meet them. To give yourself a better chance of getting an interview, talk about as many of them as you can in your cover letter.

   You can even use the same terminology as the job description when you write. This will help your cover letter pass through any automatic screening systems that scan for keywords before passing your application on to human eyes. Just make sure you don’t compromise your writing by doing so.

Here’s an example of body paragraphs that you can use as a reference for your own writing:

Office Administrator Cover Letter Closing Lines

Just as your opening lines set the tone of your cover letter, your closing lines reestablish it. This is the last thing that the hiring managers will read in your letter, so it’s important to solidify your good impression.

Thankfully, this is relatively easy since all you need to include in your closing paragraph is a thank you note and a call to action.

Your thank you can be for the reader’s time and/or consideration, and the call to action can also vary based on your circumstances and tone.

You can simply express your enthusiasm for the position and mention that you’re interested in talking with them about it some more, or you can ask them to contact you.

Here’s an example of what you could write in this section:

Example of an Office Administrator Cover Letter

Tips for Writing an Office Administrator Cover Letter

1. Proofread, proofread, proofread. This is important to do for any cover letter, but it’s especially vital if you’re applying for a job as an office administrator. More than likely, employers are looking for someone who can produce clear, polished documents, and they’ll toss your application aside if it’s riddled with grammatical errors.

   To avoid this, carefully check over your cover letter before submitting it, and try to have someone else look at it if you can (just make sure you trust their English and grammar skills). If you can’t find anyone else, go through it backward or read it slowly out loud to make sure you catch everything.

2. Don’t be afraid of seemingly unrelated work experience. Just because you haven’t worked as an office administrator before doesn’t mean you don’t have the skills employers are looking for.

   Instead of focusing on the responsibilities and descriptions of your past jobs in your cover letter, emphasize what you learned from those roles and how those skills will transfer to this new position, focusing especially on the ones listed on the job posting.

3. Talk about your love of learning. As an office administrator, no matter how experienced you are, you’re likely going to have to regularly take on tasks you have no idea how to perform.

   Employers don’t expect you to know everything, but they do expect you to have the skill and drive required to teach yourself new things. This might look like learning a computer program by looking up YouTube tutorials or attending professional conferences and workshops.

   To demonstrate your abilities in this area, share what you’ve done or are doing to continue your education, no matter how small it is.