Office Administrator Cover Letter: Sample & How to Write

Good office administrators have some obvious qualities in common: they’re well organised, they know how to arrange and present information in ways that are easy to read now and easy to find later, and they pay more attention to details than most people. An office administrator cover letter has to be the same way. 

Whether you’re writing an office administrator cover letter or a cover letter for an administrator position of any other kind, your cover (or covering) letter should both describe and demonstrate your administration skills. From the layout down to how you write about your prior experience, it all counts. 

This article will walk you through the process of writing an office administrator cover letter at least as good as the sample cover letter for an office administrator job below. You’ll learn how to use facts and figures to your advantage and make recruiters sit up and take notice. Read on to find out how.

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Need a different cover letter? Check our other cover letter samples:

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Office Administrator Cover Letter Sample

Here’s how to write a cover letter for an office administrator job:

1. Start your office administrator cover letter with a proper header

This, like many office administrative tasks, isn’t particularly difficult, but you have to both know the right way to do it and care enough to do so. Getting these things right isn’t only about the things in themselves, it’s also about showing your attention to detail. Here’s how to write the perfect header:

• Right-justify your full name, postal address, email, and phone number.
• Leave a line and add the date of writing, also right-justified.
• Leave another line, switch to left justification and add the hiring manager’s full name, their job title, company name, and the company’s postal address.

Pay attention to how the date is formatted: it’s always in the form 31st January 2021, 5th March 2021, 22nd August 2021, and so on.

Office administrator cover letter 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. Choose an appropriate salutation for your office administrator cover letter

You’ll likely end up working closely with the person to whom you’re addressing your cover letter. The best way to start your letter is simply with ‘Dear’ + their first name. You could also go with ‘Dear’ + their title and surname if they’re significantly more senior than you.

If you go with the second option, then you’ll have to be sure you’ve got the recruiter’s gender right. Stick with ‘Ms’ for women unless it’s been made clear to you that she prefers ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’. If you can’t be sure of their gender, go with ‘Dear’ + their full name, for example ‘Dear Bobby Gentry’.

Ideally, though, you should know exactly to whom you’re writing your motivation letter for a job, including their gender, full name and the position they fill in the company. Check the job advert for hints, snoop around on the company website and LinkedIn, and don’t forget that you can always simply call them and ask.

If you truly can’t figure out to whom you’re supposed to be addressing your office administrator cover letter, then definitely do not go with something like ‘To Whom It May Concern’ or ‘Dear Sir/Madame’—these shouldn’t even be on your radar as options, there are much better ways to go about this.

If you’re writing an office administrator cover letter, for example, then addressing your letter to the office manager is a fairly safe bet, i.e. ‘Dear Office Manager’. Otherwise, you could go with ‘Dear Hiring Manager’, but the more specific you can be, the better. E.g., ‘Dear Marketing Team Hiring Manager’.

Office administrator cover letter salutation

3. Write a strong opening for your office administrator cover letter

You’ve seen how busy an office environment can be, whoever picks up your cover letter is likely to be in the thick of it when they do so. Your office administrator cover letter has to make a good impression and it has to do this quickly and clearly. Your opening paragraph should do three things:

• Show your enthusiasm for the company and the role
• Mention the job title as advertised and the company name
• Make it clear what it is that you have to offer / how you’re a good fit.

If you have some experience in administration, then begin your cover letter with an achievement from your current or previous role. Show that it lines up with the company’s goals. Indicate how you could apply the same skills to the company’s situation. Generally show that you’ve done your homework in researching the company.

If you don’t have much or any experience in administration, then lead with your passion for the role and include a relevant achievement (from your studies or volunteer work) if you have one. Otherwise, include a belief statement instead, in which you show that you’re a match for the company’s values and mission.

Were you referred to the position? This is a great time to mention the fact and drop some names. Showing that you have contacts and connections within the company is a good thing, and you certainly shouldn’t shy away from doing so. Many companies are aware of the benefits of hiring referrals.

Aim for a total of about 40–80 words. In big-picture terms, all you’re aiming to do is introduce yourself and show how the company could benefit from hiring you—in an attention-grabbing and compelling way, which means showing rather than telling and using more numbers than adjectives.

Office administrator cover letter opening

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. Showcase your achievements in your office administrator cover letter

Office managers and HR recruiters read many great descriptions of administrators with superhuman time-management skills and limitless resilience in high-stress environments. Anyone can write descriptions like these and they’re thoroughly unimpressive, especially to seasoned recruiters.

Stand out from the competition by stepping out of this game altogether. Instead, focus on your actual, measurable achievements. A single hard statistic speaks louder than 10 superlatives. Describe actions you took at work and benefits that your employer gained as a result of those actions.

Choose strong, dynamic verbs like ‘organised’, ‘spearheaded’, ‘arranged’ or ‘negotiated’ and quantify everything you can, the benefits you brought to your employer first and foremost. Use accomplishment statements and something like the STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) approach to help draft your achievements.

The main part of your office administrator cover letter will comprise 2–3 such achievements, written one after another with just enough connection between them to keep things coherent. Aim for 120–200 words in total. You can break this down into two paragraphs if you like and then break it down further with bullet points.

Body paragraph of a cover letter for an office administrator position

5. Wrap your office administrator cover letter up and leave a confident CTA

This is your opportunity to wrap up any loose ends and tie anything back to your central argument: that you’re the best person for the job and this is why. Summarise your achievements and experience and link back to the benefits you can bring to your potential new employer.

Thank the recruiter for their consideration of your application—a little acknowledgement of the time and energy they’ve put into your application will go a long way. Finally, end your cover letter with a confident call to action (CTA): let them know that you’ve got a lot more to show them at the interview stage.

This part of your cover letter should be around 40–60 words long (to keep your cover letter short), not including the CTA.

Office administrator cover letter sample wrap-up and CTA

6. Be sure to use the right sign-off for your administrator cover letter

Good organisation often boils down to following a lot of little rule and procedures. How you sign off may seem like a small thing, but there is a right and a wrong way to do it. The decision is simple, though:

• If you addressed the cover letter to a named person, use ‘Yours sincerely’
• If you used something like ‘Dear Office Manager’, then go with ‘Yours faithfully’.

Leave a couple of lines before typing out your full name. Sign above your name if you’re printing your cover letter out. You could paste a high-quality scan of your handwritten signature if you’re emailing your cover letter, but that’s entirely optional and you should only do it if you can pull it off seamlessly.

Office administrator cover letter sample sign-off

7. Keep these things in mind when sending your cover letter for an administrator job

A big part of the job of any administrator is always going to be the preparation of documents of one kind or another. Your ability to format text in an easy-to-follow way is on display in both your administrator cover letter and CV. Keep the following tips in mind when putting on those finishing touches.

Length

A good overall length for a cover letter is going to be between half an A4 page and one A4 page (that’s about 250–400 words). Here’s a recap of the breakdown:

• Opening paragraph—between 60 and 80 words
• Main body—between 120 and 200 words
• Closing paragraph—between 40 and 60 words.

Consistency across the job application

Your administrator job application is made up of two main documents: your cover letter and your CV. The overall style and layout (including fonts and colours, if any) should reflect this. Be sure to match your cover letter to your CV, and vice versa. Of course, this does not apply to an email cover letter.

Choose an appropriate font

This is not the time to experiment with new fonts or try to discover one that no one else is using. Stick to something professional and understated like Noto, Garamond or even Arial. If in doubt, just leave the default Liberation or Calibri. Keep font size at 11 or 12 points.

Make your layout clear and easy to follow

Break your administrator CV and cover letter down into sections and bite-sized chunks wherever possible. For a neat cover letter layout, use subheadings and plenty of white space, directing your readers eye and not overwhelming them with monolithic blocks of writing. Use bullet points as well, where appropriate.

A new cover letter for each job

Being an office administrator can look extremely different depending on where you work. Research the company to which you’re applying and tailor your approach to fit with its corporate culture, stated values and mission. 

Save as PDF

Unless you’re explicitly asked for something else, save all your documents in PDF to protect the formatting of your 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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I hope this article was what you needed to get your office administrator cover letter in order and fired off on time–the sooner the better! Please leave any questions, comments, feedback or experiences in the comments section below.

How we review the content at LiveCareer

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.