Every resume should have a skills section listing the job-relevant abilities you can bring to the table. This section is tailored to the position and requisites provided by the employer. You could have excellent attributes as a personal trainer, but you need to show employers that you can bring the necessary solutions and knowledge to the job.

The way you organize your skills section depends on your resume format. For chronological and combination resumes, a list of skills will suffice. However, for functional resumes, the skills section requires more detail. For instance, you will pick three core skills, and for every single one, provide three bullet points describing prior accomplishments and tasks that prove you've mastered those skills.

Use this functional skills section entry as reference to better understand how to format this section:

The example above sounds like a work history entry, but each accomplishment is from a different role, masking the lack of consistent employment background.

Make sure to incorporate different soft, hard and technical skills throughout the resume to show your proficiency in various job areas.

Use our Resume Builder for more personal trainer skills and content. With more than a dozen templates to choose from, you can finish crafting your resume in no time!

Your resume’s work history section should include your previous job entries in reverse chronological order. Every entry should start with the dates of employment, job title, business name and work location, followed by three to four critical accomplishments from the role in a bulleted list.

Below is a comparison of a good and a poor work history entry:

Poor example:

The example above generalizes the tasks of a personal trainer and doesn’t mention any quantifiable statements making it hard for recruiter’s to gage your level of knowledge in the field

Good example:

This entry tackles the issues of the previous example by stating figures and statistics that demonstrate the candidate's impact on the gym.

Refer to the following tips to get the most out of your work history:

Education

The education section contains your academic details like the degree title, institution name, location and graduation dates.

To work as a personal trainer you need a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, Psychology or a related field. If you want to specialize you can also venture into the field of business to open your own personal training service or dive deeper into the nutrition and diet aspect to become a certified dietitian.

These specializations are also possible in a cost-effective way with the help of certifications and online courses.

Certifications, licenses and custom sections

If you possess certifications or awards related to your role, create a custom section at the end of your resume and showcase them.

These are some of the recommended certifications for personal trainers:

Certified Personal Trainer

With this credential, you will have an NCCA accredited certification and a vast library of updated material to help you out when building a diet and exercise program.

Advanced Personal Trainer Certification

Possessing this certification will deem you capable of developing and executing programs for conditioned, decondition and athletic clients.

Certified Nutrition Coach

As a certified nutrition coach, you’ll have the appropriate qualifications to offer your dietary needs expertise to an individual.

First Aid, CPR and AED Training

This is an important credential to have as a personal trainer as offering medical aid to a client in immediate need can help save their life.

Consider taking the following courses to improve and sharpen your skills:

Contact Information

Your personal information should be visible in your resume for the reader to have easy access to it. It consists of your full name, phone number, email address and city and state of residence.