Administrative Assistant Cover Letter Example for 2024

Handling diaries, appointments, orders and invoices may be easy for you, but employers are not just about to hand out chances for you to prove yourself. You have to demonstrate that you have the correct administrative skills from the get-go. Starting with your cover letter.

Your administrative assistant cover letter must show how organised, meticulous, and devoted you are to your work. Our admin assistant cover letter example will get you interviews once you modify it with your information, and our expert tips will help you sail right through.

In this guide, you'll see an exemplary cover letter for an administrative assistant. You'll also understand how to write an administrative assistant cover letter in a few steps. Lastly, you'll get tips and expert examples to write a perfect admin assistant cover letter for the UK.

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Looking for other cover letter examples? See our guides for:

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Haven't found your job? Check our full list of professional cover letter examples.

Cover Letter for Administrative Assistant Example

Now you know what to include in a cover letter for an administrative assistant. Let’s see how to write your own administrative assistant cover letter that will have your calendar filled up with interviews.

1. Use a professional header and a proper salutation

List your contact info (including email and phone) aligned to the right. Below, list the details of the hiring manager on the left, the date, and subject of the cover letter. Space all these sections out with empty lines.

How to address a cover letter? Avoid general salutations such as ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ unless they are unavoidable. Usually, somewhere in the job ad, the company website or LinkedIn you will find the person that will be dealing with your letter of application.

Cover letter for administrative assistant—header

You can adjust every cover letter created in the builder to meet the job requirements. Choose the name of your profession and the company to which you’re applying, and the LiveCareer cover letter builder will automatically adapt the content for you. Create a cover letter faster than you ever thought possible and apply for the job in record time.

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2. Open your administrative assistant cover letter convincingly

Have you ever seen newspapers get delivered to a shop in the morning? Heavy, thick bundles of papers. For the most competitive positions, admin assistant cover letters come like that. Hundreds. So, how do you grab attention? The same way as a paper—with a headline. 

Open your cover letter with 40-80 words explaining your most unique achievement and how you align with the company’s specific needs. Start off by listing your years of experience, and round off by relating to what you can do for them.

Cover letter for administrative assistant—opening example

3. Discuss your achievements in the second paragraph

The main paragraph of your administrative assistant cover letter should explain your 2 or 3 most key achievements in a bit more depth. These should not be your biggest achievements, but ones that align with the goals of the employer the most.

When writing a cover letter, do not make a boring laundry list of responsibilities. Focus on how you are unique in your approach and the results you get.

Do your best to put your impact into numbers, focusing on every saving and improvement you have made that would be relevant to your new position. This should end up between 120 and 200 words (and no more as hiring managers prefer short cover letters).

If you are committed to developing your career, consider joining a professional body such as the Institute of of Administrative Management to gain access to invaluable resources and training. That will quickly bolster your CV and motivation cover letter if they’re looking barren.

Cover letter for administrative assistant—main paragraph example

You don’t have to create any content yourself. The LiveCareer cover letter generator will automatically suggest the best content for your cover letter with ready-made examples and expert tips.

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4. Finish your administrative assistant cover letter with a call to action

The final paragraph of 60-80 words should draw everything together and once again reiterate exactly what impact you can have on your new employer’s business. Be confident but not ridiculous in stating your ambition.

Be outgoing and below, in a single sentence, ask for an interview or call to discuss some detail about the job or your results. End your cover letter with a proper closing, such as ‘Best Regards’.

Cover letter for administrative assistant—closing example

5. Use a business format for your cover letter administrative assistant

You will not get hired for admin tasks if you cannot get the format and layout of your cover letter right. The job is way harder than that. Show that you understand business communications and standard conventions by following these tips:

Administrative assistant cover letter length rules

How long should a cover letter be?

• Minimum half a page of A4, up to 1 page of A4.
• Opening paragraph—between 60 and 80 words
• Main body—between 120 and 200 words
• Closing paragraph—between 40 and 60 words
• Call to Action—2 lines max
• Best regards or other professional salutation
• 200-350 words total

Match the CV

Your administrative assistant cover letter and CV should match—they are two parts of the same document, not separate. If you use a simple cover letter template, then avoid fancy CV templates, and vice versa.

Choose an easy-to-read font

Don’t risk the annoyance of a hiring manager by using a font that’s too small or too fancy. Find a good look with a font between sizes 10 and 12, and classic fonts such as Arial, Calibri or Noto.

Use white space

Use lines of space to separate sections and paragraphs. If you have ended with a very blocky middle paragraph, you could pull three bullet points out for better cover letter structure.

Set even margins

Centre your administrative assistant cover letter by using even 1-inch margins on all sides. If your general cover letter is shorter than most, you can extend this to 1.5-inch to improve the presentation. That looks better than going to a ridiculous font size.

One cover letter for one job

The position of an admin assistant is an incredibly broad one. You will share a lot of common responsibilities across industries, but there will be details, nuances, and specialist themes in each one. 

Thoroughly research every company you apply for to find the best fit. Once you find a company you want to work for, tailoring your admin cover letter and CV is easy. Once you’ve done that, and showed genuine interest, you can’t not get an interview.

Displaying a ‘culture fit’ is very important to most companies, so look up their values and way of working.

Save as PDF

What's the best format for a covering letter? Unless asked for your CV in a *.doc, save in the PDF format to protect your formatting. Unless you're writing an email cover letter.

A cover letter alone simply won’t be enough—you need an impactful CV, too. Create your CV in minutes. Just follow our wizard and fill in every CV section with ready-made content. Get started by choosing a professional CV template.

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Does this answer how to write an administrative assistant cover letter? Got any more questions on what to include? Did you find the administrative assistant cover letter example helpful? Let us know in a comment!

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Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.