Are you a fitness guru? Flex your figurative muscles by writing a personal trainer resume to wow potential employers. Read our guide now.
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Writing a personal trainer resume requires a bit of heavy lifting. You need to make the most of your kinesthetic knowledge and motivational skills to create a professional resume that gets hiring managers’ heart rate up!
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You’ve got the skills. We’ve got the job-hunting know-how and personal trainer resume samples to go with it. Our free resume examples and this guide will teach you how to:
Personal trainers help people get into tip-top shape. You will work with clients on customized training regimes to help them reach their fitness goals. As such, you will need to be a master of HIIT, lifting, cardio, and stretching, among other things. People who seek out personal training fall into four broad categories:
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Each of these would describe a great personal trainer differently, so to offer the broadest appeal, you have to be able to adjust your style accordingly – that’s part of the personal in personal trainer. In your work as a personal trainer, you will be assessing fitness and creating programs for each client based on their goals. You may use many different types of exercise. You will also be teaching your clients the proper form for performing exercises and encouraging them to work their hardest to achieve their fitness goals.
Your responsibilities will vary depending not just on the environment, but on the individual employer’s job description. In some settings, you may also be expected to be an expert in Microsoft Word and Excel for writing reports and keeping data, but in others, you may hand off that task.
Your personal trainer resume should reflect how you will accomplish these varied tasks.
Statistical insightAlmost half of New Year’s resolutions involve the desire to lose weight, but gym attendance will fall after the first couple of months of the year as resolutions fail. In fact, only 20% of resolutions make it past February, according to The Conversation.
Writing your own personal trainer resume can be a workout! Head over to our other sport and fitness resume samples if you need more inspiration:
You’re in the right place at the right time. Demand for your skills is growing as the emphasis on overall wellness increases. Add that to the desire for personalized attention, and you are in a great position to secure your next job.
As a personal trainer, you have the option of working for yourself or for a larger employer. You may work in a community fitness center, private gym, health club, or yoga or Pilates studio. Some trainers work in conjunction with physical therapists to aid clients with chronic or acute injuries.
These days, you may simply stream your classes or be asked to do so by your employer.
You may work in an apartment complex that has a gym, for a corporation that wants to offer wellness services to its employees, in your clients’ homes, or in a studio of your own or with other trainers. Resorts and cruise ships also offer training to their customers.
The choice is yours, especially in this market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs for personal trainers is growing by leaps and bounds. By 2029 there will be 15% more jobs than in 2019; that growth is much faster than the average career.
With the reduction in other activities during COVID-19 times, people are looking for ways to occupy their time. Another reason is the rise in obesity in America and the desire to lose weight. Many people find fitness instructors an important part of their weight loss routine, especially because as a personal trainer, you can prescribe a healthy exercise regimen that is much less likely to cause injury or excessive fatigue. Afterall, you want your clients to come back!
Statistical insightThe obesity rate in the United States in 2020 is 42.4%, the highest it's ever been, according to a report from the Trust for America’s Health.
You also have a choice of the type of personal training you want to conduct. If you like working with a variety of client types, you may want to stick with a larger setting such as a gym or apartment complex, but specialized “boutique” gyms such as OrangeTheory and other bootcamp programs on the upswing, too. These gyms offer specific programs and classes that you will have to follow.
Your responsibilities will vary depending not just on the environment, but on the individual employer’s job description. In some settings, you may also be expected to be an expert in Microsoft Word and Excel for writing reports and keeping data, but in others, you may hand off that task.
No matter what environment or type of personal training you decide to target, even if you want to work for yourself, a professional resume will help get you there.
We’re ready to look at this important document. Let’s start with your profile.
The fundamental part of writing a personal trainer resume is understanding the sections of your resume and how to maximize their effectiveness. The basic structure of a resume for a personal trainer is as follows:
We will go into detail on how to write personal trainer resume sections further in this guide, but for now - simply make sure you follow this time-tested structure (which is built in to our resume examples).
Your job is to convince hiring managers that you are the right person for the job. Not only is your knowledge of fitness and physiology impeccable, but you have people skills and innovative ideas to keep your clients from getting exercise fatigue. Using strong descriptive language, without crossing the line into bragging territory will make your personal trainer resume a convincing one.
For more writing inspiration, you can take a look at our related sport and fitness resume examples:
When considering the best CV format for a personal trainer, people usually mean one of two things:
When it comes to personal trainer resumes, both the functional and reverse chronological resume formats may be applicable. In fact, it's one of the few professions where it's entirely dependent on your skills and career history. The reverse chronological format places the most emphasis on your employment history section, showcasing the most impressive and/or recent jobs first and the least important or oldest - last.
This resume format is good for trainers that have worked mostly at fitness companies, gyms and similar organizations. It's also especially good if you have some prestigious or well-known employers on that list. This resume is format makes the work experience section quite large, using numerous bullet points to showcase achievements at your past jobs.
If, on the other hand, you are a personal trainer that worked mostly with individual clients outside of gyms, or if you're a trainer with highly sought after (or specialized) skills - you might want to check out the functional resume format.
This resume format moves the skills section up in priority and makes it larger, ensuring that the hiring manager sees your important professional abilities first and pays more attention to them. At the end of the day, only you can determine which resume format is best for you. It's fair to say, however, that most candidates go with reverse chronological (it's also the default format in our resume examples).
We'll cover the question of the layout and formatting (fonts, space, design etc.) at the end of this resume example guide.
What’s your style? That’s a big part of the question you will answer in your resume profile, also known as a summary statement. Personality plays a big role in your career, so now, when you are looking for a personal trainer job, it is a great time to assess your style and make it clear in your profile. This is the only place where you will have the leeway to get a little creative.
First, which style of fitness trainer fits you best:
You are probably a combination of more than one of these. Use strong action words and descriptions to give hiring managers a sense of your professional personality.
Of course, your profile is more than just a paragraph on your style. You need to convince recruiters or clients that you’re right for the job. Within these 100 or so words, you also have to show off your biggest achievements.
Did you help a client accomplish their fitness goal? Did you increase business at your current job? What work experience best shows off what you bring to the mat? Do you have an area of expertise? Back up your assertions with details and data.
There’s another reason you should personalize your resume and it’s the least personal reason imaginable: algorithms. Applicant Tracking Systems use algorithms to rank your resume against other candidates, so no matter how great your prose is, if you don’t get past this software, you won’t be seen by a hiring manager.
There are hundreds of different ATS programs and each company may use a different one, so there’s no definitive guide to beating them, but if you take these steps, you will greatly improve your chances of being seen by a recruiter.
Don’t leave any relevant information for your cover letter (see our templates and examples here). The ATS may not scan it at all. Instead, use your cover letter to complement your resume and add more personality to your candidacy.
Use abbreviations and spell out words just in case the ATS only scans for one or the other.
