subject: Administrative Resume Cover Letter - I Offer Support Not Milk And Sugar [print this page] I was a little pissed off, no where on my administrative resume cover letter did it say gofer. Yet that is exactly the description I was getting for tasks and duties I would be assigned to do, if I was to be chosen for the position. Now I understand that I was applying for a support position, support I can understand. I expected to handle administrative functions. Not run up and down with coffee and milk. This isn't The Proposal and I'm not in New York.
It would have been ok if this happened, once. The problem was that it happened several times. I took a closer look at my resume and it showed all the right information. I had been part of a team before. Worked with people in an office setting, and handled day to day administrative tasks.
I took a closer look at my administrative resume cover letter and I think I found the problem was in the presentation of the resume. I dug deeper and realized that the generic information I was putting on my cover letter was lowering the value of my skills and not giving the reader any reason to expect more from me. This had to change.
I looked for better information and reworked by administrative resume cover letter to look like administrative material. I gave examples of my skills and took initiative in learning as much about the company as I could. That had worked for me before but it takes time to learn about a company when you don't have a friend on the inside.
After the changes to my letter I finally got an opportunity for another interview and the job description was much closer to what I expected to be doing. I was to prepare documents, manage data or records, some data entry and scheduling meetings. The sort of stuff I had done before, while being part of an administrative assistant team. That's what they called being an assistant to the main assistant, where I used to work. The down market left me out of a job and the main assistant with more work.
Reworking my administrative resume cover letter worked great. The idea of going to run errands and getting coffee was far from what I wanted to do. Now with a little knowledge and a better presentation, I'm much closer to my goal.
