Why you need an office manager cover letter

• Even though the traditional letter seems to be used less often these days, don’t be tempted to send anything less than a formal office manager cover letter. If the company received a letter that looked casual or even sloppy, they might believe that you are not as organised as the applicant they are hoping to find.
• Put your name and address in the top right hand corner. Also add your email address and your telephone number.
• Leave a line space and put the date.
• Leave another line space and in the left hand corner put the name of the person you are writing to and the business address.
• Leave another two line spaces and then formally address the person you are hoping to get a job with. You should write Dear Mrs Johnson. In this situation, never be tempted to put ‘hi’. If you don’t have the person’s name put Dear Sir or Madam. This is a last resort, in this case, as people like to receive letters of this type with their name on it.
• Leave a line space and you are now ready to write the body of the letter. We will return to that shortly when we have finished the format of your cover letter.
• When you have finished writing the body of your letter, you need to close it with ‘Yours sincerely’. However, only use this is you addressed the person that you are writing to by their name. In the event that you used ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, you should use ‘Yours faithfully’. Even if you feel a wave of relief sweeping over you as you finish your letter, don’t be tempted to close with ‘Best wishes. Keep it formal.

For the first paragraph of your cover letter, you need to advise the reader why you are writing to them and to slot in your elevator pitch. Your elevator pitch is one or two sentences that sums you up as the office manager that this particular company needs. It is your hook to get them interested in you as a potential employee. Don’t waste this opportunity. Basically, because you are applying for a job as an office manager, it is essential that you get this right. The reason is that the employer in this situation will be looking for someone that is highly organised and an effective communicator. You could write:

“As a highly skilled administrator and coordinator of office functions, I have both the experience and qualifications to fit the criteria needed to become your next office manager at Rogerson and Rogerson Solicitors.”

In the next section of your office manager cover letter, you need to demonstrate how you match their job requirements perfectly. A good way to do this is to use bullet points. It makes it easier for the reader to quickly glance through the information. For instance, if the job specification lists ‘organisation and time management abilities’, you need to put in your first point any qualifications that you hold or training courses that you have attended that are relevant to organisation and time management. You also need to add any experience of these skills.

If you work your way through the list of requirements that are in the job application and follow the same procedure, you will demonstrate that you are tailor made for the position.

In the next section of your office manager cover letter, you should give a short list of the highlights of your career. This might include meeting deadlines when a huge contract was going through or if you were involved in a large database management. It helps if you think of this section as similar to a television trailer. Highlight your glory moments.

In the final section of your office manager cover letter, you should explain that you are confident that your skills will fuse perfectly into their office environment and you would welcome the opportunity to discuss how you could benefit the company.