You may be wondering, do Yoga teachers need a resume? Absolutely! It’s crucial for a yoga teacher to have a resume on hand that’s updated and ready to share at any time. I teach yoga teacher resume building in the business section of our 200-hour yoga teacher training every year. I think these tips will help new and existing yoga teachers increase their hire-ability (is that a word?) in the already over-saturated yoga market.

We’ve already established that you need a yoga resume. In case you’re not convinced, here are a few more reasons why yoga resumes are absolutely crucial in getting hired for your next dream job.

BENEFITS OF HAVING A YOGA TEACHER’S RESUME

• Highlights expertise and experience quickly but efficiently. Especially important as yoga studios are small businesses with limited staff managing multiple roles on the backend. By including a current yoga teacher’s resume, you make it easier for them to understand your ability as a potential yoga teacher hire and increase your chances of landing an audition.
• Shows your professionalism. This may seem obvious but as a yoga studio owner for the past 6 years, let me tell you, it’s not easy to find professional yoga teachers. I get many emails of people asking for the yoga teaching jobs with no resume, no introduction, just a couple of lines that literally say: “I graduated now hire me!” The devil is usually in the details and these folks don’t get hired.
• Save time for the yoga studio owner. The more you include in the introduction email, the more you increase your chances of getting hired. Add the resume, ask for a yoga audition, provide your teaching schedule availability. You could even write about your experience at their studio when you visited to take a few classes. The more you do to set yourself apart quickly and professionally, the greater your chances of being hired.

WHAT TO AVOID IN A YOGA TEACHER’S RESUME

Before we understand what goes into a yoga resume, let’s first cover what to avoid in your yoga teacher’s resume.

• Academic qualifications. The university or degree you graduated with doesn’t matter unless it’s related to yoga. Degrees in physical therapy or something beneficial in yoga would be a good, but computer science or criminal justice degrees would be irrelevant. Add what’s relevant, leave the rest out.
• Current job. Again, unless it’s relevant to yoga and wellness it can be left out. For example, if you work the front desk in a gym or a spa it would worth adding as it highlights your familiarity with customer service and the wellness industry. If you were a dermatologist, you could leave that out of your yoga resume.
• Awards and recognition related to your other jobs that are not yoga-related.

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN A YOGA TEACHER RESUME

Here’s the good stuff you’ll need to build the best yoga teacher’s resume. These are in no particular order.

How do they reach you?

Add your full name, an email address that you check regularly, and a cell phone number. It’s a good idea to add your yoga social media handles if you have them. Avoid linking personal social media pages if you don’t have a dedicated yoga page.

If you would like to understand what a professional yoga page is – look at Aham Yoga* on Facebook. It’s exclusively about yoga and engaging the community with our yoga updates.

What are your yoga qualifications?

This is the juicy part of the resume. And honestly, the only part that yoga studio owners like me are concerned with, so make sure it’s honest and thorough.

• Highlight yoga schooling and graduation dates. Tell us where you studied, what you studied, and when you graduated.

• Add any additional yoga workshops, intensives, or mini yoga teacher trainings that you pursued recently. Mention what you studied, where, and when. This highlights that you’re keen on continuing your yoga education.

• Add any related certifications and accreditations that you possess. First Aid and CPR, Yoga Alliance accreditation, YACEP hours, etc. are all great examples.

Highlight teaching experience if any…

• If you already teach, tell them where you teach and for how long you’ve been there. It can be any number of places that you teach at. If there are many, just add the significant ones.

• If you don’t teach yet, skip this part of your yoga resume.

• Highlight places where you’re a substitute yoga teacher as well.

• Highlight any other teaching experiences that may not be yoga but proves you have skills needed. For example, a school teacher would be a worthy experience to briefly mention as this shows the employer that you’re used to speaking to a large audience.

• Highlight any volunteer yoga teaching that you’ve done in the recent past if applicable.

Additional tips to include in your yoga teacher resume

• On-going training if any. For example, we have a couple of yoga teachers who didn’t finish the 500-hour yoga teacher training at Aham Yoga this year due to a personal emergency or travel. They’ll complete it in the next round when this starts again. This is valuable expertise to add to your yoga teacher’s resume. In this case, you would say something like: 500-hour yoga teacher training in progress. Mention where and when you took this training.

• Future training that you’ve signed up for. Be honest here, don’t add a dozen wishful trainings. Add any significant yoga teacher training that will add more weight to your yoga resume. For example, we’re doing an exclusive pranayama yoga teacher training in 2020. We’ve already got people signed up and ready for this. Something like this would be a worthy add on to your yoga teacher’s resume.

• References. Add two references to your resume. Sometimes people say references available on request but that means more back and forth for me as a yoga studio owner. I prefer just having it in the resume to save time and energy.

• Teaching schedule availability. If you have specific windows where you can teach, make sure to mention that in your yoga teacher resume. Many times, yoga studios and gyms will only be looking to hire yoga teachers for a specific time slot. If you’re available during that time slot, it would be good to have that visible right away.

YOUR YOGA TEACHER RESUME IS READY…WHAT NEXT?

• Once your yoga resume is ready, convert it into a PDF if possible. Save it by uploading it on your cloud for easy access anytime.

• The most important thing is to actually send it out to places where you think you’ll be a good fit to teach yoga.

• Make sure to add a nice cover letter with your yoga resume. Introduce yourself briefly and mention why you’d be a strong candidate for them to consider. Highlight your availability if you know you’re a 100% available when they need you. Don’t make the rookie mistake of just uploading your resume and asking them to consider you.

• Once you’ve sent the yoga resume, make sure to follow up with them a week after if you’ve not heard back. Yoga studios are small businesses run with very little backend staff and a few people wear multiple hats, so keep that in mind as you reach out to them.

Good Luck! I’m sure if you apply all of what I’ve shared with you, you’ll have a very strong yoga teacher resume that will appeal to yoga studios looking to hire. If you have questions, want my input on your resume, or if this worked for you – leave us a comment below and let us know.

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