Writing Your Personal trainer CV

Whether you’re an established fitness pro looking to switch gyms, or a newly qualified trainer looking for your first role, learning how to nail your personal training CV is essential.

Although there is no definitive way to write a personal trainer CV, we’ll show you, step-by-step, how to structure your personal trainer CV, and how to guarantee that your next boss will take note when your CV lands on their desk.

The content of this article is also available via a helpful YouTube video. This means you could watch along whilst writing your Personal Training CV to have the most impact:

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If you’re looking to set your personal training CV apart from the crowd, the best way to do that is by completing our Level 4 Fitness Courses, such as our sports nutrition courses. Download our complete prospectus today to find out more!

Why Is Personal Training CV Presentation Important?

personal training cv

How you present your personal trainer CV is the first thing a recruiter will see when hiring for a role. This means if you want to gain employment and make money as a personal trainer, it needs to be fully optimised.

The way your CV looks and how it has been structured will not only decide if a recruiter will read it in the first place, but whether they can make sense of your experience, and what you can offer to the company.

In fact, many recruiters admit that if a CV is poorly laid out, they won’t even give it a second glance.

As a candidate, your primary focus should be making a good first impression with a future employer. A poorly laid out CV, whether it’s a personal trainer CV or even a CV for a weekend job, tells the employer that you are at best, a little lazy, and at worst, disorganised.

Be aware that presentation, much like the way you dress as a PT, says a lot about you as a person. With our next sections, we’ll explore how you can present your personal trainer CV in the best possible way.

How To Format Your Personal Trainer CV

personal trainer resume

Formatting can often be a sticking point when you’re first designing your personal trainer CV, but we’ve put together a few quick pointers to ensure yours is as engaging and easily readable as possible.

  • Use An Easily-Readable, Clear Font – This should go without saying, but using a font that’s easy on the eye is a must. We’d suggest a plain font (like Times New Roman or Tahoma) in size 12.
  • Headings Should Stand Out – While your personal trainer CV should mostly be written in 12pt font, your headings can (and should) be slightly larger. We’d recommend 16pt font here, just so that they separate each section nicely, in Bold and Underlined.
  • Keep It Compact – We’d strongly advise keeping your CV to two pages maximum. This is an optimal length, and should be enough to cover all the relevant information. Use bullet points to keep key points concise and streamlined.
  • Align Everything Properly – Organising your margins, alignments and spacing can mean your CV is much easier to read, and makes much more sense. Many recruiters will throw out CVs that don’t look professional and well organised.
  • Structure It Logically – Start off with vital information (like your contact details and personal statement) and end with your hobbies and interests. We’ll explore this in much more detail in our next section.
  • Use Positive Keywords – Use language that frames you in a positive way, and describes the skills you have. Words like “conscientious”, “industrious”, “reliable”, “punctual” and “dedicated” all show who you are, and what you can offer to any potential employer.
  • Tell The Truth – Don’t lie on your personal trainer CV. Any lies or deliberate exaggerations of your career or the skills you have will always be found out, and you’ll face serious consequences.
  • Avoid Images – Images can often distract the recruiter from the main portion of your CV, which can mean you don’t get given a second glance.

Following each of these points ensures you’ll have a perfectly formatted document that can form the basis of your successful personal trainer CV.

What To Include In Your Personal Trainer CV

First, let’s examine what you need to include in your personal trainer CV to maximise your chance of getting a second glance from a recruiter, and increase the likelihood of you getting considered for a job.

This isn’t as hard as it sounds, and with just a few easy tweaks you could be well on the way to landing your dream job in the fitness industry.

Contact Information

PT CV

Your personal information, such as your full name, contact number and email address should be clear, and easily visible at the top of your CV. It is also a good idea to place your full name in bold typeface.

To really draw attention and make a recruiter read your gym instructing or personal trainer CV, we’d advise placing your qualified status for the job you are applying for underneath the contact information in bold.

Here’s a great example:

personal trainer resumé

Immediately, you can see all the necessary information about the applicant, including their qualifications, accreditations, and contact details. This is an ideal way to start your personal trainer CV.

 

Your Personal Statement

cv for personal training

A personal summary should be a sales pitch to your prospective recruiter, demonstrating how you meet the requirements of the role, and showing your transferable skills that will help you excel in the job to which you are applying.

Think of your personal statement as the section of your CV where you can really express yourself. With that in mind, here are some of our industry tips:

  • Keep to a paragraph in length and keep your points concise.
  • When highlighting skills, you should always use examples from past employment to justify your claims. Anyone can say they are hardworking, but can they prove it? We recommend the Point Evidence Explain formula, which you can read about in our industry guide to personal trainer covering letters.
  • Your personal statement should be full of enthusiasm, passion and should show off your personality. You have a voice, and so should your writing!
  • Your fitness personal statement should be tailored for the role to which you are applying. Soft skills will be transferable, but you need to show that you’ve read the job description, and that you’ve specifically highlighted which of your skills suit you to the offered role.

Check out this example of a job advert from Sports Direct to see an idea of some of the skills you might want to include:

cv personal trainer

If the personal trainer job description does not give much away, research core skills needed to be a personal trainer.

Personal Trainer Personal Statement Example

Still stuck with your personal statement?

No need to worry, check out our template personal statement which you can adjust to your own experience:

“I believe I would be a great fit for the role of personal trainer within [INSERT COMPANY NAME] as my experience meets and surpasses the requirements outlined within the job description. I am a hardworking, conscientious individual with a proven ability for working as part of a team. I have demonstrated this throughout my last term of employment, twice receiving nominations from my peers for employee of the month, over a 12-month period.”

Nailing these first few aspects of your CV if you’re looking to get noticed.

Work Experience

Your work experience should form the bulk of your personal trainer CV. Of course, because this is the densest area in terms of content, your organisation and presentation has to be perfect.

If you fail to pay attention to structure, your content won’t tran

slate, and you will miss opportunities you could have otherwise competed for. By following the easy-to-execute tips below, you’ll be well on your way to securing your next interview!

  • Chronological Order – Make sure to organise your jobs in chronological order, with your most recent position first.
  • Key Information – Clearly show when you started and finished that role, as well as the name of the company you worked for, and a short summary of your responsibilities.
  • Share Your Successes – Describe what you achieved in your role, and how you achieved it. If you can, relate these achievements to the job you’re applying for so that they’re as relevant as possible.
  • Other Experience – Include any relevant unpaid or voluntary work that provided you with relevant experience and skills.
  • Explain The Gaps – If you’ve got any gaps in your CV where you were out of work, explain these, and mention what you did in that time.
  • Discuss Key Skills – If you’re young and have limited experience in the working world, discuss the key skills you have, and how they relate to the role you’re applying for.

If you’re still unsure, check out this example we’ve created:

personal trainer cv example

Straight away, you can spot how this person has related their experience in Sales to the role of a personal trainer. Thinking of new strategies and ideas, delivering training, and even exceeding targets, all relate to the fitness industry.

Now, let’s explore the next section for your personal trainer CV.

Education

The education segment of your personal trainer CV follows the same sort of pattern as the employment section.

Education, for many roles, is a necessity. As such, this section needs to be clear and concise, but can be edited depending on the role you are applying for.

For example, some roles will ask for specific GCSE’s and A Levels, while some may only ask for a pass in English and Maths. So, for the former you will have to list all of your qualifications, while the latter you can simply state that you match the job requirements, leaving more room for employment details.

In addition to our expert tips below, your best course of action is to fine tune your CV for each role. This shows your attention to detail, as well as your drive to get a job in an industry you’re passionate about.

  • Chronological Order – Always start with your most recent educational experience first. So, if you’ve just finished a degree at university, then that comes before your college and GCSE grades.
  • Key Information Listed – Make sure to include the date you started and finished, as well as the name of the educational institution (like your university, college, or school), and the level you studied at (GCSE, A-Level, Degree, Masters, etc.).
  • Concise & Relevant – Bullet point the grades you got, and then move onto your next qualification. Make sure these can be related to personal training (e.g. English, Maths, and Science skills are all relevant to different parts of the job)
  • Remove Unnecessary Qualifications – If you’ve got a bad grade on a topic that you don’t feel affects your ability to work as a personal trainer, you can leave it off. Similarly, you don’t necessarily need to include your degree class if it’s a low grade (Like a 3rd or a 2:2), and won’t affect your abilities.

Applying all of these tips is the ideal way to ensure that your education section is as concise and relevant as possible. If you’re still unsure, though, we’ve popped an example below:

personal training resume

Industry Related Licenses & Qualifications

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. These should also be in reverse chronological order, with the newest qualifications first.

Follow our tips below to tailor this section effectively for your personal trainer CV.

  • Keep It Relevant – Only include licences and qualifications that are relevant to the personal training role you’re applying for.
  • Include Key Information – You should note down the year you undertook your qualification, the passing grade (if applicable), and the awarding body (e.g. Focus Awards Level 3 Personal Training Certificate), as well as any expiry or renewal dates. This information is all found on your certificates, if you’re unsure.
  • Insurance – This isn’t a necessity, but include insurance if you feel it could help your application.

Let’s look at an example to see how best to organise this section.

cv personal trainer

Achievements

Identifying the right achievements can be tricky. We’re all proud of something, but it’s important to work out what personal achievements can have a positive impact on the way you work, and the ones that will stand out to potential employers.

Achievements definitely have their place on a personal trainer CV though, so you need to

find the sweet spot between what matters to you, and what reflects positively on you as a candidate.

So, how do you identify your achievements?

How To Find The Best Career Achievements, Step-By-Step

cv for personal training

Remember, achievements are personalised to you and what you deem to be an achievement will be different from another candidate. Your achievements then, help define you as a person.

Don’t be scared to be proud!

As well as being important on a personal level, achievements are one of the first areas a lot of recruiters go to find out more about prospective candidates. It shows them the positive impact you’ve had on past employers, as well as the values and ideals you hold close.

It is therefore key to make sure that your achievements are readily available in your personal trainer CV, and that they are clearly visible. These tips and tricks can help you pinpoint exactly what you want to include in your achievements section.

  • Contains A Skill – Each achievement you list on your CV should have a skill attached to it, showing how utilising that skill helped you in an area of your work or personal life.
  • Include Non-Work Achievements – Displaying achievements from outside of work shows a lot about who you are as a person, and can positively influence the employer’s opinion of you. You can also provide examples of your academic achievements, but don’t rely on this.
  • Provide Evidence – Always ensure that you can provide evidence of your achievements if needed.

We’ve popped an example below of how you could structure the achievements section of your personal trainer CV.

personal trainers cv

 

Hobbies And Interests

There is no real right or wrong answer with how hobbies and interests should be laid out. And, in truth, they are a little bit contentious with employers, with some top firms arguing that they deserve no place on a professional CV, never mind their own dedicated section.

However, for a social job like personal training, there is no better way to express your personality than through showing a recruiter you maintain hobbies, extracurricular pursuits, and interests that you are passionate about.

What’s more, if you have gaps in your employment history or patches in academic areas, hobbies and interests can play a vital role in showing personal development, reflecting on your commitment to honing skills in a concentrated environment that isn’t work.

Should you decide that your hobbies are relevant, as with all things in your personal trainer CV, you should consider the following formatting tips:

  • Keep This Short – This should only be a brief section, and not take up too much space on your personal trainer CV.
  • Be Specific – Tell your potential employer what you’re interested in, and avoid generic responses (like “I like music” or “I enjoy socialising with friends”). For instance, if you say enjoy running, explain what kind of running you do. Keeping a focus on fitness is ideal for any personal trainer CV.
  • Include Teams and Clubs – Sports teams or clubs are a great option for the hobbies section of your personal trainer CV. Mention your role, and how you get involved with any events.
  • Make It Varied – Your employer wants a quick snapshot of you, and a great way to do that is by making your hobbies and interests section varied and interesting. The quirkier or more unusual, the better, as this can stick out in a recruiter’s mind.

how to write a personal trainer cv

Almost all of the skills this applicant has listed are related in some way to fitness, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. Hobbies like “clock making” shows your attention to detail and focus, as well as your commitment to long-term projects.

Other examples of hobbies you could include:

  • Puzzles
  • Tech hobbies
  • Play an instrument
  • Learning a new language
  • Photography / Art
  • Social hobbies
  • Games

References

When it comes to the referencing section try and give some actual points of references that prospective employers can directly contact, but do not place their information there without their consent.

If you are unsure whether, for example, a past employer or college lecturer would be a referee for you then you can simply state “Available on request” or “Available on demand”.

Personal Training Interview Preparation

Once you have completed your fitness CV, you need to prep for your interview. Watch our quick video below on our top 14 tips for naling your first personal training interview. Also, feel free to see our top 27 most common personal trainer interview questions and answers.

Click here to “SUBSCRIBE to get more videos like this one. Here are some more videos recommneded just for you:

 

Before You Go!

We hope you’ve found our tips and tricks for producing the perfect personal trainer CV helpful. Each section has its place on a well-maintained CV, and combining all of them is a great way to set yourself apart from the crowd.

If you’re looking to really excel with your personal trainer CV, completing a Level 4 Sports Nutrition course is an excellent way to build your resume and impress any recruiter.

Click here to download our FREE course prospectus and learn more about our extensive range of courses.

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About the Author: Luke Hughes

luke hughes origym authour
Luke is the Co-Founder of OriGym. Holding a first-class degree in Sport and Exercise and an MSc in Sport and Nutrition, he is also qualified as a Level 4 Personal Trainer with various specialist credentials covering the entire spectrum of health, fitness and business. Luke has contributed to a variety of major industry publications, including Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Metro, Cosmopolitan, The Mirror, The Sun, The Standard and more.

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