Hey everyone, and welcome to PTPioneer! I will discuss some tips and advice for enhancing your resume, allowing you to land the desired job.

If you have recently become a personal trainer or have been one but are looking to apply to another area, this article will assist you.

This article will cover all of the essential tips to create a fantastic personal trainer resume, like: 

  • The essentials of a resume and the best ways to present them
  • Using templates for proper layouts
  • Other factors that may play a role in landing the job

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Personal Trainer Resume Advice! Let's get you that Job! 4

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Let’s dive in and take a look at these tips for your resume!

Introduction

The resume is the most crucial aspect when it comes to job applications. 

For personal training, you have already spent many hours studying and then passing the certification exam for your chosen organization.

You can apply this advice here in the article, even in another profession, as resume advice can apply nearly anywhere. 

A solid resume will single you out and place you above the rest of the competition. You would be surprised at how many people do not put effort into their resumes and then get forgotten in the hiring process. 

Let’s start and look at making an excellent resume for personal training positions!

Resume Building – The Absolute Essentials

To start this section, let’s look at the absolute necessities of a job application. These will be present on even the worst resumes, so you better ensure they are on yours. 

First, we have contact information. This includes information like phone number, address, name, and email address. 

An important note would be regarding the email address, as this is something that may not look exceptionally professional if you use your everyday email address. Make sure to check that and think about how a potential employer may perceive the name of your email. 

A newer piece of material for personal training and similar professions is the presence of a professional website, which has become relatively cheap and easy to make in today’s day and age. 

Take this website, for example; it is made with WordPress, which is what many people use to make their websites. 

If you have your own website, this must be shown off in the resume, as it is a fantastic way to beat the competition. 

All of the materials mentioned above should make their way to the header section of your resume. This ensures that it is easy to find and concise.

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Let’s look at the bulk of the rest of the resume next, which will take most of your time to create!

Resume Building – Ideas to Perfect the Resume

One of the most fundamental tips to follow and nail down first is that a resume should exist as a single page. This makes it easy to read and makes it highlights all of your skills in an easy-to-view way. All employers will expect a single page. 

Employers will not sift through multiple pages of resumes, and having more than one page will almost surely get the whole application thrown out. 

One page should be perfect when appropriately formatted if you put only the most essential information on a resume.

Personal Objective

The personal objective should be a couple of sentences explaining why you are qualified for the position you are applying for. 

It says I am qualified and hope to get something specific from this job or career path.

Ideally, the objective will show that you are passionate about what you do in the industry and may indicate your vision for the personal training industry. 

Experience

Putting your experience is probably the most important part, as, without it, it will just be a piece of paper that doesn’t show what you are capable of to employers. 

Most readers of this article have not yet worked as a personal trainer, so you must show any relevant experience in other areas to help shine. 

It does not need to be only fitness and health industry experience that shows up on the resume, but the more of that, the better. 

It could be a good idea to mention times when you had trained people, whether friends or family when you were not yet in the fitness industry. 

Just ensure that the experience makes sense and is easy to read for the employer. 

Certifications

Here you will list all of the relevant fitness and health certifications that you have gotten. This is needed in the fitness industry, as certification is required for most jobs. 

As a fitness professional, you must go through some health and fitness certifying agency, like ACE, NASM, NSCA, or any others we discuss here on PTPioneer. 

Once you work hard and study to get a certification, you must keep up with the recertification. All of this should be shown off within your resume, as it ensures employers that you can do the job asked of you.

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Education Level

This would be the easiest part to fill out of the entire resume. Usually, you will have a minimum of a high school diploma or the equivalent diploma. Most certifying organizations require this, which will also be required for most jobs.

The college experience is a bonus, especially if you have had any relevant classes on health and fitness.

Someone who went to school for exercise science or kinesiology-type bachelor’s degree or master’s degrees will need to make sure that they have these bolded out to emphasize this to the employers looking at the resumes. 

It can be a good idea to place any workshops that you have attended in the resumes. These can also help set apart certain people in terms of experience. 

The last piece of education level that could set people apart would be internships with health agencies, hospitals, or anything within that realm. Many future personal trainers intern through physical therapists’ offices and even sports teams. 

Special Skills

This section will differ from the previous ones, as there will be less health and fitness-related information and more that shows how you excel everywhere else.

Some examples would be things like programming, sports, cooking, and any other special skills and interests you might have.

This information will allow your employee to see some of the things that you are passionate about. If some of these passions relate to your job as a personal trainer, that would be an even more significant plus in the resume. 

References

This section will contain all of the references that the job can talk to for information and details about how you are as a person and even as a worker. 

Ideally, you will not include any friends and family references unless they directly link to the type of profession you are applying for. 

If you have ever done any style of coaching or sport work, you can get references from other coaches around you or the parents of kids you may have coached. 

If you do not have any references to use from health and fitness-related areas, then it is a good idea to seek out previous employers, teachers, and other similar people that may speak well about you.

Personal Trainer Resume Advice! Let's get you that Job! 5
Personal Trainer Resume Advice! Let's get you that Job! 6

Make Your Resume Professional and Presentable

You need to balance your professional resume between being plain and standing out. There is a middle ground that you should shoot for, as too much in one direction can bring less time viewing for the employer. 

If you have too much flair in your resume, it may be overlooked just as often as one that seems like a barely-edited piece of paper. 

You should start with a simple and elegant resume template to make the perfect resume. Most of the Microsoft Word resumes or easy-to-find resume examples online will work. 

You want to think and choose one that fits the style of job you are applying for. Again, Microsoft Word offers hundreds of templates to start from, and you can choose from many styles. 

It can be a good thing to get a free subscription to a service like Grammarly, which will ensure you have no errors, but most importantly, it will make sure that you keep the tone consistent. 

I recommend that resumes be written in a neutral tone, as this will give the best responses from employers. 

For the font, I also recommend that it be written in a font size between 11 – 14, as this looks best on a single page, and you can vary the size based on how much you want to place into the resume. 

And the last tip is to ensure it is all on one page. I have mentioned that previously in the article, but it is crucial to ending by re-emphasizing that. One-page resumes will always trump resumes over one page.

Outside Factors That Play A Role

Even if you have an excellent resume, other factors must be considered when determining whether or not you get a job.

Employers are genuinely looking for two things: sincerity and social skills. When you get an interview, you can shine those two aspects on your potential employer. 

Both of these skills are essential when working with the public, especially in the health and fitness industry. 

Potential employers will be looking at your social skills needed specifically to train clients. This is not easy to teach, but you can work on and improve these skills through many certifications. 

And then, when it comes to sincerity, this should be present to land the job, and also, a fitness instructor needs to be sincere with the customers that they train. 

One other really important factor is practicing what you preach. Trainers should live a healthy lifestyle if they are expected to teach others how to live a healthy one. 

Set a proper example to your clients, but also show that during the interview or when you meet your potential employer. 

How much will a new client believe their trainer on weight loss advice or training advice when the trainer is not practicing the same thing?

This will only help you with credibility in your ability to craft exercise programs that tackle the fitness goals people have set for them.

Employers will definitely consider that last part of living a healthy life!

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has instilled some confidence and given some great advice in your job application process. 

If you want to enhance your chances of landing a job as a fitness trainer, whether you are a new trainer or an experienced one, you can’t go wrong by implementing these tips here. 

Make sure that you are relaxed, not stressed, and enjoying the process, and you will surely land the best job for yourself.

Good luck with these things we discussed; make sure to check out PTPioneer for more fitness articles and study options for certifications.

You also might like my articles on becoming a good trainer, a successful trainer, and how to market yourself once you are a personal trainer! If you’re wondering what type of salary you can make as a personal trainer, check out this article! Happy personal training, everyone!

Tyler Read - Certified Personal Trainer with PTPioneer

Tyler Read


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