Office Manager CV: Example & How to Write (+Template)

It’s likely that you’ve been involved in a hiring selection process or two in your time as an office manager. You’ve had an inbox of CVs to read through in the thick of a busy office setting. You click and scroll through CVs a bit at a time as people come to ask for this and that and pressing emails come in.

Some CVs catch your eye with gimmicks that soon become irritating. Others look like diamonds in the rough, but are just too difficult to get a grip on with all the distractions around you. Some were really good, but you never had the time to figure out what it was about them that worked so well.

This article will show you, step by step, how to write the kind of CV that cuts through background noise like a guillotine through paper. Read on to see an office manager CV that’s better than most and learn how to put your office manager skills and experience into at least as effective a form.

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Need a different CV example? Check these guides:

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Haven't found what you're looking for? Check all our CV examples.

Sample office manager CV

Now you know what to include in a CV. Here’s how to write your application:

1. Start your office manager CV with a personal statement

As an office manager, you’re the face of your org unit within your organisation. If you have contact with customers (or students, clients or guests), you’re also often its face to the outside world. Good first impressions and clear, confident introductions set the tone for future interactions.

It’s the same for your office manager CV. Your CV personal statement is its first substantial part and has to do the following three things well: 

• Introduce you as an office manager
• Show what you have to offer through specific examples
• Describe your goals and how they line up with the organisation’s goals

No pressure, then. Luckily, there’s a virtually fail-safe procedure for generating personal statements quickly and easily. This will come in handy, since you’ll have to write a new personal statement for each new job application. Simply answer the following questions in 3–4 sentences total, 50–150 words.

• What kind of office manager are you and how long have you filled this role?
• What sectors or industries have you been working in?
• What’s your most impressive/relevant achievement?
• (Optional) What’s your most unique achievement?
• What are you hoping to be able to achieve in this job? (For your employer, not yourself).

Your application may well be processed and filtered by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This makes it doubly important that you mention the position for which you’re applying by name and use the organisation’s name in your personal statement. Also, try to mirror keywords used in the job advert.

Your personal statement comes first in your office manager CV, but it’s best to write it last (that's why it's also called a CV summary). Writing up your achievement(s) will be much easier once you have your job descriptions prepared. So keep your personal statement in the back of your mind for now and come back to it later.

Office manager CV personal statement example

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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2. Get your work experience in order for your office manager CV

You won’t find any job adverts for office manager positions that don’t require prior office-work experience. That’s because the day-to-day reality of office work requires you to have the ability to integrate many different skills in a busy environment. That’s why recruiters will be in a rush to see your work history.

Make it as clear and simple to read as you can by sticking to the traditional, chronological format. This is what hiring managers are expecting to see. It’s also more easily parsed by an ATS. List your job descriptions from most to least recent. Use this template to set out the subheadings:

[Job Title]

[Company Name, Location]

[Dates of Employment]

Add up to six bullet points under each subheading. Do not describe your office manager duties. Instead, focus on your achievements. Achievements are the concrete, measurable results of your actions. Aim to quantify every single achievement. Use accomplishment statements to help you do this and structure each point.

Office manager CV job descriptions sample

“Managerial candidates should avoid common mistakes during interviews, such as using 'I' excessively and not acknowledging the team's contributions. It's essential to value the human aspect by recognizing individual contributions and presenting achievements with a balanced perspective. Overemphasizing personal credit for team successes can suggest a lack of team-oriented leadership”.

3. Include an education section in your office manager CV

A university degree is certainly not the only way in to becoming an office manager, but having a clear and concise education section in your office manager CV is an absolute must. Use the following template to help you list your tertiary qualifications if you have them:

[Qualification Type] [Qualification Name] (Qualification Class) (Years Studied)

[Institution Name], [Campus Location]

When listing higher education qualifications, include the name of your qualification, the years you attended (with an expected award or graduation date if you’re still studying), and the name of the institution and its location. 

Include your high school education if you don’t have a university degree. Use the following templates to help you set it out:

A-levels: [Subject 1, Subject 2, and Subject 3]

[School], [Location], [Years Studied]

[Number of GCSEs] GCSEs (including Mathematics and English)

[School], [Location], [Years Studied]

List your A-levels by name, the years during which you studied them, the name of the school and its location. For GCSEs simply state how many you completed, the years over which you completed them, the name of the school and its location.

It’s a good idea to mention Mathematics and English when stating how many GCSEs you’ve completed. Employers often need to see that you have passes in Maths and English as a bare minimum.

Office manager CV education section example

4. Showcase your office manager skills in your CV

Office work often requires you to use several skills in parallel. Looking at your achievements it might not always be obvious how many different skills went into them. Use this section to put your skills front and centre and make the invisible visible. Your skills section will be different for every job application.

It’s best to first make a master list of skills that you can later copy from as needed. Open a new document and simply list as many of your office manager skills as you can (hard and soft skills). Then, go through your list and add a sentence to each skill that shows exactly how you’ve demonstrated that skill at work.

That last step is crucial, it’s what will make recruiters sit up and pay attention. All that’s left to do is to go back to the job advert and check what skills are mentioned there. Copy 5–10 skills across from your master list, being sure to at least cover those from the advert. That’s your skills section sorted.

Office manager CV skills

5. Make good use of extra sections in your office manager CV

Not everything that makes you a great office manager and not everything that points to your abilities will fit into the categories of experience, education and skills. Add extra sections to your office manager CV to fill out your portrait as an admin worker.

You can add sections that list any relevant courses you’ve completed, your achievements outside of work, awards, even hobbies and interests. Just keep it professional and relevant to the job at hand and you can hardly go wrong.

Do you speak any languages other than English? Speaking a foreign language is far less common in the UK than elsewhere in Europe and can be a real advantage on the UK job market, whether your job requires it or not.

Office manager CV additional sections sample

6. Complete your application with an office manager cover letter

Office life is full of procedures. Received an invoice? Put a copy in this folder. Want to change your leave dates? A quick chat in the lunch room is fine but follow up with an email to make it official. Job applications are similar: a CV is only half of the application, the cover letter is the other half.

Don’t let your office manager CV down—be sure to send it through with an office manager cover letter. The only excuse not to do so is if you’ve been explicitly asked not to. A good cover letter will follow the standard British business letter format and include:

• A properly set out header
• The right salutation
• A strong, compelling cover letter opening
• A clear showcase of your achievements
• A succinct wrap up and call to action
• A sign-off that matches your chosen salutation

A well-structured cover letter will end up being over half an A4 page but no longer than one A4 page, about 200–350 words in total. Not too bad, and even easier when you take into account the fact that you’re halfway there once you’ve got your job descriptions prepared for your CV. 

Some final things to keep in mind for your office manager job application

You wouldn’t send out official correspondence on company letterhead with typos, spelling mistakes and odd formatting throughout. Maintain the same high standard in your office manager CV by keeping in mind the following basic CV formatting rules:

• Leave your contact details near the top of your CV. Don't mention your gender, age or date of birth on your CV.
• Use subheadings and lots of white space to clearly break your CV structure down into sections.
• Choose an appropriate CV font, like Arial, Noto, Garamond, or the default Liberation or Calibri.
• When it comes to CV length, keep to one page per decade of experience and no more than two pages regardless.
• If you're planning to use an MS Word CV template, make sure to save it as a PDF to protect its formatting. Check free CV templates here.

Proofread and spellcheck your office manager CV and cover letter. Ask someone else to read and proofread both documents. You may have caught yourself prejudging others at work on the basis of their spelling and grammar mistakes—this is extremely common and it can work against your job application.

When sendin in your job application, avoid phrases such as 'Please find attached my CV'. It sounds old-fashioned. Go for 'I have included my CV for your review' instead.

One final piece of CV advice: follow up if you haven’t heard back after a week. A quick phone call or email can really pay off and at the very least you might get some insight into how your application is going.

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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I hope this article has helped you get your office manager CV into shape! Is there anything I’ve covered here that you’d like more information on? Do you have advice of your own to add? Leave it as well as any other comments and feedback in the comments section below!

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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.