Office Assistant cover letter example

There are so many small and medium companies where an office assistant is one of the most important roles in the company. 

The nature of the work has changed from physical filing and mundane admin to a far more human-centered coordinator of office life. There are apps for sorting calendars, arranging meetings and doing the books, but there is no (current) technology that can soothe an upset client, write a social media post or ensure that a new starter has everything that they need. 

Office assistants are there to do all the extra things that we would all love to do but simply don’t have the time to do them well. Their duties will vary depending on the size of the company and the industry in which they work, but there are also many common themes.

The cover letter of an office assistant needs to cover both their functional skills and their personality – cultural fit is almost more important than experience as much of their role can be picked up on the job. 

The cover letter of an office assistant is therefore vital in bringing out this personality. It is often possible to move into an office assistant role from other occupations and critical to highlight transferable skills and show how you will make that people-first difference.

This guide, alongside our office assistant specific cover letter example, will:

• Show you how to describe your impact on everyone that you work with.
• Outline the aspects of your previous experience that are worth accenting.
• Look at the psychology of why your future employer needs to hire an office assistant.
• Create an application letter that is refreshing, relevant and reassuring.

It is likely that you are tackling writing your application letter alongside your resume. As both need to be written in different ways (and with different objectives), why not check out Resume.io’s free resources for some additional inspiration? 

What does an office assistant cover letter look like?

What is the primary purpose of an office assistant cover letter? You might think that it needs to include a laundry list of everything that you are able to do – your proficiency with software applications, all sorts of training that you have completed and your knowledge of social media platforms. While the list of tasks that you will likely undertake is undoubtedly long, there is plenty of space in the skills section and role descriptions of your resume to give this level of detail.

A cover letter for an office assistant should be used for another purpose entirely. Sure, you can mention some of the biggest tasks that you have undertaken to give it a professional polish, but for the most part it should talk about how you are the glue that holds the office relationships together. 

A harmonious office is a productive office. In a way, office assistants are tasked with ensuring the well-being of their colleagues because they take the strain on so many levels. When viewed in this light, a great office assistant brings incremental benefits to the mental health of those around them. Not to mention also doing all the admin tasks.

This supportive element should be first and foremost in the office assisatant application letter.

Each letter will be personal for every office assistant, but we wanted to share an example that will give you an idea of how you might structure your people-led sales pitch.

It is also worth considering that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all office assistant. While your resume and cover letter might portray you, your skills and your approach in a certain way, it is critical to sprinkle elements of flexibility and adaptability into your writing. 

Every boss will have different expectations of the person that they employ and every office culture will have different demands, so while it is important to describe who you are and how you work as a “starter for ten,” it is important to demonstrate that you are able and willing to be shaped  in order to do the best job as circumstances demand.

It is also the case that as the economic cycle changes, office assistants will be asked to do different things, so saying that you don’t like making sales calls is probably a bad idea if there are dark economic clouds on the horizon. You will help your business to keep afloat.

You will likely be asked to do all sorts of things that might not be on the official job description, so being flexible and willing to learn is critical to talk about. You might not need to go into detail and write full sentences about this – a careful choice of adjectives here and there will be enough to get the message across.

If you cast yourself as someone who is adaptable, it will be easier to overlook the inevitable aspects of your experience that don’t quite fit. If you approach your job search with a “this is me, this is how I am” mentality, you might end up missing out.

No matter what you decide to focus on in your application letter, the messages need to come across clearly. How you structure your letter can make all the difference.

Best format for an office assistant cover letter

The hiring manager for an office assistant will often be an office manager or operational manager and you can be sure that they will have seen plenty of resumes and cover letters in their time. While you want your letter to stand out for the right reasons (compelling content), there are certain structural norms that should be observed so that you don’t stand out for the wrong reasons. Don’t lose the chance of an interview because you decided to be different in how you lay out your arguments.

Here are the core requirements:

• The cover letter header
• The greeting / salutation
• The cover letter intro
• The middle paragraphs (body of the letter)
• The ending paragraph of your cover letter (conclusion and call-to-action)

Here is an office assistant cover letter example for inspiration:

We will now explore each section in detail. For more general advice, you can also refer to our overall guide on cover letters which offers a broader overview.

Cover letter header

When you are an office assistant, you understand that certain things simply need to be done right and forgotten about. You won’t be praised for them and you might not even think that they have been noticed, but if you get them wrong it can cause real issues.

The header section of your cover letter is a similar case. For practical purposes you have to include your name, your email and phone contacts, and sometimes your address (although this is far less common nowadays). The ATS software will need to find the information in the header and you definitely don’t want a hiring manager scouring social media or sending you an additional email to ask how they might contact you.

Every bit of communication in a job search needs to be value added. You do not need to include the inside address of the employer, for example. If you are wasting an employer’s time because you have not done something that is done as standard by all the other applicants, your candidature won’t progress very far.

A different reason for including a comprehensive “header” section is that there is often an area of white space on the left or right of the page (depending on your preference). This white space will act as a mental pause; slowing down the mind of the reader for a few milliseconds and allowing them to focus on the important information to come. If your application letter is a wall of text, very little of it will be processed and retained.

The aim of this part: Don’t distract the reader because they are thinking about a missing email address or phone number. Make sure that the ATS can scan your contact details.

Cover letter greeting and introduction

The greeting at the top of your cover letter follows much of the same logic. If you get the tone of the letter right by addressing it correctly, it won’t be overly noticed or appreciated, but if you get it wrong it can subtly affect the perception of what is to come. Assess the tone of the correspondence that you have received thus far. Maybe the internal recruiter has written “dear” rather than “hi” in front of your name? Maybe they have addressed you by your surname. Maybe, on the other hand, you have known the hiring manager for a while on social media and it would be strange to call them by their surname. Our cover letter example goes with "dear Mr. Prosser," which is a variation you can't go wrong with.

If the job description includes a name to contact, make sure that you address the letter to them. If it doesn’t, then although it is easy to find names on social media, it is a risk to use a specific name in a general cover letter. If, on the other hand you are emailing it directly to a specific person, then you should absolutely use their name. 

In the case that you do not know to whom it should be addressed, there are a couple of options. You might decide to use the more formal “to whom it may concern” greeting, but more people tend to prefer the “dear Resume.io team” variant. This might be considered friendlier and even the word “team” can give off some hidden positive signals.

The introduction of your cover letter should be a sentence or two that gets to the crux of your application and tells the reader something that no other applicant can say. As mentioned above, you have to give a sense of your people-focus and flexibility, and it is maybe worth mentioning any experience that you feel is particularly relevant for the role.

Your introduction has to make the reader sit up and realize that you might just be the person that they are looking for. While you might want to mention issues such as the fact that this is your first office assistant role or that you are coming back to work after a leave of absence, the introduction is not the place to do it. The message should be positive and compelling.

The goal of the cover letter introduction: Set up a sense of intrigue about your application – they are expecting to read a killer first couple of lines, so make sure you go with the big guns.

In the first sentence of our office manager cover letter sample, the applicant has effectively led into why they are the right person for the job. See the sentence below:

Cover letter middle part (body)

The body of the cover letter is where you have a chance to tell a couple of career stories which encapsulate the main messages of what you want to say. Use a few adjectives to describe how you want about your tasks, make sure that you mention your impact on others around you, and ensure that whatever you describe is a fit for the job description. This aspect cannot be underestimated. Employers know that applicants will put a lot of thought behind the content of their application letters, so if you are talking about things that are not an exact fit with the information about the role that has been supplied, the hiring manager may assume that you do not have the experience and move on to someone else.

Tell your stories but make sure that you include your impact on others and how you are a fit for the job in question.

The meat of your career experience should come in your resume, but the cover letter needs to convey enough personality and warmth that it warrants reading your resume again with a fresh pair of eyes. You want to create a feeling where the hiring manager wonders what it is like to work with you as part of their team. Inviting you to interview should be a no-brainer. Share some of the big projects that you have worked on. This offers a quantifiable insight into the sorts of situations that you can handle—if the work is from the same industry, it will show that you have the related experience to fall back on.

The aim of the body of your cover letter: Illustrate how you are going to improve life for everyone in the office.

The body of our cover letter example details the applicant's biggest accomplishments including data to back up the assertions. Bullet points break up the text.

How to close an office assistant cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)

What would you say to someone if you wanted them to remember you? What overriding thought would you want someone to have as they sit in the interview with you? These considerations should be at the forefront of your mind as you craft the closing line of your application letter. How do you finish on a flourish? 

For an office assistant, a solid idea is to explain your motivation for going to work. The job is a highly demanding one and the employer will want to understand your motivations. There may be various reasons, but if they resonate with the rest of the letter it will make a powerful statement. 

Also, show that you are keen to take the next step in the interview process and say that you are hopeful that they might invite you to an interview. If you believe in your ability to do the job, this is not too presumptuous.

The aim of the cover letter conclusion: Finish on a positive note and show willing to take the next step. Include a Call To Action so there’s a specific connection to further discussion.

Mistakes to avoid with an office assistant cover letter

While concentrating on getting the context right is absolutely the right approach, you shouldn’t lose sight of some basic rules of job search. Here are three mistakes to avoid:

1. ßDon’t over-promise. While you may well be in the earlier years of your career, it cannot be expected that office assistants are experts in everything. There is always an element of a learning process, so don’t profess to be some admin wizard. You won’t come across as being honest and it will sew doubt in the mind of the reader.
2. Don’t get too personal. Maintaining a level of professional distance is important for any office assistant. While they should be personable and friendly, getting too personal can always lead to issues along the line. Show your future employer that you respect the invisible boundaries and don’t be too personal with your letter.
3. Avoid formatting mistakes. This goes without saying, but check the grammar and formatting of your letter and resume. Attention to detail is a key requirement of the role and there is nothing more disappointing and telling than a spelling mistake.

Office assistant cover letter with no experience

An office assistant position is a great way to get your foot in the door in an industry. As an entry-level job hunter, how do you write a cover letter that will get the attention of hiring manager when you haven't had an office assistant job before? First, remember that hiring managers know they are filling an entry-level position. Then, think in terms of skills.

You have probably interacted with others to meet a group goal, taken responsibility for a project, held a part-time job or were a member of a team or club. All those experiences show your soft skills or those interpersonal and organizational skills that mean you know how to work with others to get the job done and how to take responsibility for your role.

If, as is our cover letter example writer, you are targeting a job in a specific industry, explain your interest in that type of company and show off the knowledge you have. 

Finally, do your research and express knowledge of your future employer, the company culture and its operational philosophy.

Key takeaways

1. Show how you are the harmonious glue to hold the office relationships together.
2. Portray yourself as being flexible and ready to take on any challenge.
3. Make your application letter readable with a logical flow and structure.
4. Demonstrate that you can be relied upon to solve the most challenging problems.
5. Make your cover letter relevant to the industry and the company culture.

With resume.io, writing a powerful cover letter and resume is the first and critical step to securing your dream job. Entrust us with providing you with the best cover letter templates for your individual needs.