Personal trainers work for gyms, fitness centres, individuals or corporate clients. A professional personal trainer CV is could give an incredible first impression to your prospective employer. The CV should be concise and to the point, it should highlight your personal and professional skills and experience.
In an industry where qualifications are accredited by REPs, CIMSPA and others, you should make sure you show an accredited course before applying.
If you are applying as a senior Personal Trainer with more established contacts and personal branding, we would strongly advice to also show how you are different than others, for example through a personal trainer website, LinkedIn profile, membership to professional bodies and social media followers.
Before we go into the tips and advice, let's see the most common mistakes.
The first part of your CV, positioned at the top of the page, should include your personal information. You need to include the following details;
Top Tip: Save space on your CV by avoiding any unnecessary information such as marital status, date of birth or your full home address (only list town and county)
A personal profile is one of the most important aspects of your CV and is a chance for you to blow your own trumpet. What are your strengths? Do you work well as a team? Are you reliable, hardworking and punctual? Take time to write a couple of sentences to really 'sell' yourself. The first two opening sentences are crucial so you need to highlight any specific qualities that will demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the role.
Top Tip: When highlighting skills, aim to use examples from past employment to justify your claims.
Your employment history outlines your previous jobs, internships and work experience. Ideally, you should begin with the most recent. When listing each position of employment, including the dates, job title and address along with a short summary of your duties. Then bullet points any significant achievements or skills you acquired during the role. It helps to choose the duties most relevant to the job you’re applying for.
Top Tip: Where you have limited work experience, other experience outside of paid employment could show your capabilities. This might include unpaid work placements, or community activities, such as working with a charity.
Like your experience section, your education and fitness-related qualifications should be listed with the most recent. This is exactly the same logic as your education section: be concise, include the most relevant information, and make sure the employer knows you are adequately qualified. If you have recently left education, you can write it like so:
Institution name – Dates attended (from-to)
You can then lay your qualification out as follows;
Qualification, Grade
Top Tip: Keep your qualifications relevant. You may be proud of your Cycling Proficiency Certification, but it has no place on your CV!
While your CV tells the story of your career, the additional information section can reveal a little more about your personality. Hobbies, interests, skills and achievements all play a vital role in showing personal development and reflecting on your commitment to maintaining extracurricular pursuits that you are passionate about.
Top Tip: It’s important to focus on relevant hobbies and interests such as fitness since you’re writing a personal training CV. A health-related achievement, for instance, completing a marathon might help show drive and determination, which are important skills in the fitness industry. Try to list a select few of your most impressive achievements.
Like your address, adding references is no longer standardised. Therefore, you can include a line at the end of your CV that reads ‘reference on request’.
Top Tip: Potential employers contact your references and ask questions about your skills, duties, and/or productivity. Choosing the right referee is therefore important. It is always a good idea to select a reference who is thoroughly familiar with your skills and abilities and will speak positively about your work ethic.
To help you, we've put together some of the main points to consider when writing your CV. This is probably one of the most important documents you'll ever write and needs to create a lasting impact to ensure you get that interview. You may only have 20-30 seconds to grab the reader's attention, so consider carefully what information you want to put down. Here are some things to think about:
Remember, your CV is your ticket to getting that interview. For more information visit www.bradleycvs.co.uk
To be considered for top personal training jobs, you first need to introduce yourself to your prospective employer. Include a brief description of your skills and experience, as well as why you're passionate about your work. Employers also like to know why you have chosen their company to apply for and how you can fit directly into their work culture.
Download the Cover Template for Personal Trainers to get your job application started today!
Here from the experts…
Paul Swainson – Head of Personal Training, Future Fit Training
“Identify any Transferable Skills and Experience – For example, customer service, administration, organisation, marketing, sales skills, and business management are all beneficial within a personal training environment."
Future Fit training programme was very straight forward, but I felt I was missing out by not having any hands-on experience with an actual coach/tutor. A lot of my marks were lower than they could have been due to not fully understanding the subject or item as well as I should, but not having a quick reference point available to verify anything was a drawback.
Mick Jowett 27 04 2019
The Pilates Matwork course was detailed, practical and challenging. The course content was delivered in a variety of ways i.e. online learning and face-to-face suiting learning styles. Scott and his team were very helpful at the end of the phone/online. I was lucky enough to walk straight into a Pilates teaching job as soon as I qualified. Thank-you FutureFit!
Anne-Marie 12 03 2019
An incredibly professional organisation that deserves recognition for the quality of the training. It was made easy for me to qualify to Level 4 PT by use on online training to provide a foundation of knowledge, then supplemented by simply superb weekend workshops on various specific aspects - these workshops under promised and over delivered every single time through instructors that had a wealth of knowledge and experience and clearly demonstrated this in a professional manner.
Neil1969 24 01 2019
I signed up for the Total Immersion with Future Fit and so far have completed my Level 2 & 3 as well as many CPD courses, I just have some Level 4 courses left. Upon reflection of my training so far, I'm not sure that online learning is the best way to go as you don't get the hands-on experience that you really need to build confidence and I did feel a bot lost when I first started working in the industry. However, having said that I have always been very impressed with Future Fit prompt and reliable customer service.
Ruby Parsons 12 03 2019
