An administrative assistant needs to be able to cover many tasks within an organization. How can you show that off in your cover letter?
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Your cover letter is the first piece of work a company will see you do, so it needs to demonstrate how you will perform on the job. Take a look at the admin cover letter sample on this page. As you can see, there are different customized sections and content that features a bevy of skills but the example still reads as a simple cover letter for administrative assistant. Our Cover Letter Builder allows you to create as many new sections as necessary to capture your years of experience and accomplishments effectively.
You’ll notice that most cover letter examples for positions like this are in a clean, professional format, much like the documents you’ll create on the job. As an administrative assistant, you are expected to be able to present information in a wide variety of formats. Your cover letter should be presented in a format that is professional and easy to read.
Each piece of correspondence an administrative assistant creates is a representation of the company and, therefore, needs to be flawless. This also holds true when you write a cover letter for an administrative assistant job. You’re directly addressing the recruiter and telling them why you fit all the requirements that the job posting listed. This means discussing your experience and how you fit the office environment and convincing the hiring manager that you’re the right fit for the job.
We’ll give you what you need to know about writing an administrative assistant cover letter:
Because you will likely be drafting a great deal of professional correspondence on the job itself, it’s important to ensure that your cover letter for administrative assistant positions demonstrates your skills. This example will help you craft one that showcases your skills and demonstrates why you’re good for the position.Here’s a short cover letter that you might submit for an administrative assistant position:
Dear Mr. Smith,
I never imagined I would work as an administrative assistant until I was asked to take phone calls in place of the administrative assistant at my old job. By the end of the day, I had formulated a system for taking and forwarding phone calls, and I realized that I had natural talent for this field. Now, with multiple years of experience, I am pleased to apply for the position of administrative assistant at [Company Name].
I love learning a new company’s office environment, and I’m especially good at helping administrative workers with prioritizing important tasks. In my past job, I had a system where any time work needed to be delegated, I would assign work to co-workers based on their time management skills, work experience and current workload. My position often transitioned between office manager and executive assistant.
In this new job, I want to help the entire office team with my administrative support skills. I can increase efficiency at Company Name by helping with the routine elements of the job. I look forward to talking to you about how my skills will perfectly match up with the needs of this job role.
Sincerely,
Jeannine Gonzalez
Although this is a short cover letter, and you will likely need to expand it a bit, it’s a great starting point for anyone looking into how to write an administrative assistant cover letter. This can also be a good starting point if you need a sample cover letter for an administrative assistant with no experience.
Most people do not realize how well a cover letter is written until they are done reading it. That is because good cover letters utilize straightforward language and a clean presentation to get their points across. Avoid trying to sound more professional by using complicated words when simple language can do the trick. A good administrative assistant understands the importance of the economy of language and your cover letter needs to put that understanding on display.
At the beginning of every cover letter is always a header. This includes contact information like your phone number, often your address and social media links, including your LinkedIn profile. Include a salutation that uses the hiring manager’s name. A greeting like, “To Whom It May Concern” sounds stuffy and old-fashioned, and “Dear Hiring Manager” often comes off as overly generic. Make the best first impression with a great introduction.
You should open your cover letter with something that captures the hiring manager’s attention. Anyone can write, “I’m happy to apply for the administrative assistant position.” But note how this applicant instead goes directly into a personal story, showcasing why she really has a passion for the administrative assistant position and how she has natural talents for it. This shows that not only does she meet the job requirements, but she’s also likely to stay with the company, which is something that is important to a hiring manager.
Now that you have the manager hooked, you can proceed with information about your extensive experience or your administrative skills. Use some resume examples to fill out this section but avoid going over every piece of your career from your resume. Most cover letter templates provide some space to list key achievements in the second paragraph, often as bullet points. Stick to achievements that showcase why you meet the job description. You should also include or expand on your top skills in your body paragraphs because you want your cover letter to offer information that the hiring manager cannot get anywhere else. So be sure to include your very best accomplishments and the highest accolades of your career so you can have a catchy administrative assistant cover letter.
The last paragraph is your call to action. Note how the applicant states the job interview as though it’s a foregone conclusion. “I look forward to talking to you,” implies that she believes wholeheartedly that she will receive a call for the interview. This helps push a hiring manager to call you and talk to you more about what you can do, hopefully resulting in you landing your dream job.
Top tip: Focus on revising and double-checking your own work. Check all your details and verify that you have everything right. Don’t just send your letter to the head of human resources, if you can help it. Review the job posting or go online to find the name of the correct person who should receive your correspondence.
Get all the writing advice you need with ResumeHelp’s resources.
Give the potential employer the ideal view of your experience with a matching resume that pairs with a professional cover letter. You can complement your administrative assistant resume with our resources:
If you’re hoping to submit an administrative assistant resume, it’s a good idea to write a cover letter and submit it as well. This is even true if the job description doesn’t state that you need one. A cover letter puts you ahead of all the other job seekers, and makes human resources see that you’re really serious about getting the job.
The proper length of a cover letter should be long enough to cover everything, but short enough to be easily read. Your cover letter should be between half a page and 3/4 of a page. A hiring manager usually won’t read more than a full page, and a cover letter shorter than half a page can look empty. A cover letter builder can help you find templates that make the cover letter just the right length.
If you’re looking for an entry-level job, you can use this cover letter example to showcase your academic achievements, internship experience and more. Lean heavily on soft skills for a cover letter with less experience, as they’re more likely to get you the job.
The hiring manager is looking for certain types of information in your cover letter for administrative assistant jobs and you need to deliver that information in an engaging and interesting manner. From your opening sentence where you introduce yourself to the closing sentence where you tell the hiring manager that you look forward to a personal interview, each statement you make needs to be engaging and interesting. The focus of your letter should be on the accuracy, efficiency and communication opportunities you encounter on a daily basis, so mention specific achievements and accomplishments, and show how you’ve used skills that will be necessary for the job. Also provide details about why you’re interested in the job and/or company. Connect your background with this job, and explain why it’s the next good logical step in your career.
Being an administrative assistant means having the ability to facilitate and anticipate the needs of their senior manager. The top three skills that will help most with the range of tasks you may be required to complete are: independence, organization and interpersonal skills. These three skills will be the foundation for most of your work as communicating with others, time management of both you and your supervisor and extreme attention to detail are the cornerstones of administrative responsibility.
While some of the requirements for the role are similar since both jobs require data maintenance and inventory management, an office manager is responsible for supporting the entire office including coordinating building repairs and vendor management. Administrative assistant roles, however, revolve solely around the support of directors, senior managers or other specific team members.
Even without formal work experience you can still write a cover letter that will get you the job by showcasing your top hard and soft skills. You can use outside experiences like volunteer work to talk about your problem-solving skills, file system adaptation and organizational abilities. Also use your academic experiences to discuss multitasking, research and communication — all top skills for administration roles.
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