Kyle Aaron
Active member
Job hunting
I wasn't looking for a job immediately I'd graduated in February since I had my month-long honeymoon in Peru in April, I didn't think it'd help my prospects to say, "by the way, I need a month off in the first three." So I've just trained a few people privately as I've mentioned elsewhere.
Since coming back I've been looking for a full-time job. I've been most interested in the community gyms. That's where I'll find the absolute beginners I like working with, and where there's some freedom to work for actual results, rather than having to focus on sales.
Resumes and cover letters
I've a couple of interviews coming up, at this stage I can't say where. My old teacher had recommended me to one place. I asked:
"I heard that when RMIT City Fitness advertised for 3 positions they got 300 applications, obviously you don't interview 300 people, how do you cut them down? What on the resume or cover letter gets the candidate binned?"
He replied that there were a few things. The first is the form letter. People are applying for 50 jobs in one day and can't be bothered even changing the header of their email. They're out.
The second is the quals/experience not relevant, the person's background has absolutely nothing to do with the job. They don't even go to the gym. Maybe Centrelink made them apply to 100 jobs, who knows.
Thirdly is when the inflated resume. Someone's claiming to be a team leader after six months' work experience or something, claiming experience they couldn't have had in that timeframe, or which doesn't match what they've said otherwise.
Lastly is the meathead or cardio bunny, someone has no qualifications or experience, they just like to go to the gym and reckon they're real good and smart, eh.
When those four types are culled, he said, not many are left and you can interview basically all of them. I actually got this advice after writing my resume and cover letter to a few places so it was interesting to look at in retrospect.
In my cover letter and resume I'd said that I had no experience, and wanted to work in a place with experienced people I could learn from. This got me a quick call-back. Apparently, a lack of experience is not a problem so long as you acknowledge it - admitting "I don't know" is actually a novelty, makes you stand out.
Interview
The advice he gave was that fitness employers would first of all like the military experience - you've worked in a team environment, will do as you're told without arguing, have put up with stress, been fit, and so on.
Secondly, he said my age (39 in a couple of weeks) would help, some life experience lets you relate to a wide variety of clients with a wide variety of goals. "The only advantage the young have is that they're cheap," he said. In the interview, I should emphasise the life experience.
"Actually I emphasised that while I didn't have experience as a PT, I had trained recruits in the Army and apprentices in the kitchen, so there's some coaching there. While I was running people through obstacle courses I didn't know that their gluteus maximus was doing an isotonic contraction and shortening against resistance to extend their hip so they could take a step, but still - I did lead groups, watching out for injury and dehydration, pushing individuals to their personal limits, and so on."
"Yep, tell them that again," he said.
Free trial shifts
The guy I spoke to originally, the teacher's contact, had said that I ought to offer to do a few free shifts. This is the same as hospitality. A person's resume can look great and they can interview well, but once they get into the kitchen and a table of 12 comes and must all be out within 45 minutes to go to the theatre, that's when you see if the person is organised and can do things without swearing at everyone.
I said - to both the contact and in my cover letter - that I expected the fitness industry is somewhat the same. What's the person like with clients? Do they just talk to the hot young ones? Do they give hammer curls to 45 year old formerly sedentary women as a starting workout? etc.
So if all goes well at the interview, I expect to do a few free shifts, and after that get officially employed. I'd encourage my current clients to join up there, if they don't want to I can still train them outside.
I wasn't looking for a job immediately I'd graduated in February since I had my month-long honeymoon in Peru in April, I didn't think it'd help my prospects to say, "by the way, I need a month off in the first three." So I've just trained a few people privately as I've mentioned elsewhere.
Since coming back I've been looking for a full-time job. I've been most interested in the community gyms. That's where I'll find the absolute beginners I like working with, and where there's some freedom to work for actual results, rather than having to focus on sales.
Resumes and cover letters
I've a couple of interviews coming up, at this stage I can't say where. My old teacher had recommended me to one place. I asked:
"I heard that when RMIT City Fitness advertised for 3 positions they got 300 applications, obviously you don't interview 300 people, how do you cut them down? What on the resume or cover letter gets the candidate binned?"
He replied that there were a few things. The first is the form letter. People are applying for 50 jobs in one day and can't be bothered even changing the header of their email. They're out.
The second is the quals/experience not relevant, the person's background has absolutely nothing to do with the job. They don't even go to the gym. Maybe Centrelink made them apply to 100 jobs, who knows.
Thirdly is when the inflated resume. Someone's claiming to be a team leader after six months' work experience or something, claiming experience they couldn't have had in that timeframe, or which doesn't match what they've said otherwise.
Lastly is the meathead or cardio bunny, someone has no qualifications or experience, they just like to go to the gym and reckon they're real good and smart, eh.
When those four types are culled, he said, not many are left and you can interview basically all of them. I actually got this advice after writing my resume and cover letter to a few places so it was interesting to look at in retrospect.
In my cover letter and resume I'd said that I had no experience, and wanted to work in a place with experienced people I could learn from. This got me a quick call-back. Apparently, a lack of experience is not a problem so long as you acknowledge it - admitting "I don't know" is actually a novelty, makes you stand out.
Interview
The advice he gave was that fitness employers would first of all like the military experience - you've worked in a team environment, will do as you're told without arguing, have put up with stress, been fit, and so on.
Secondly, he said my age (39 in a couple of weeks) would help, some life experience lets you relate to a wide variety of clients with a wide variety of goals. "The only advantage the young have is that they're cheap," he said. In the interview, I should emphasise the life experience.
"Actually I emphasised that while I didn't have experience as a PT, I had trained recruits in the Army and apprentices in the kitchen, so there's some coaching there. While I was running people through obstacle courses I didn't know that their gluteus maximus was doing an isotonic contraction and shortening against resistance to extend their hip so they could take a step, but still - I did lead groups, watching out for injury and dehydration, pushing individuals to their personal limits, and so on."
"Yep, tell them that again," he said.
Free trial shifts
The guy I spoke to originally, the teacher's contact, had said that I ought to offer to do a few free shifts. This is the same as hospitality. A person's resume can look great and they can interview well, but once they get into the kitchen and a table of 12 comes and must all be out within 45 minutes to go to the theatre, that's when you see if the person is organised and can do things without swearing at everyone.
I said - to both the contact and in my cover letter - that I expected the fitness industry is somewhat the same. What's the person like with clients? Do they just talk to the hot young ones? Do they give hammer curls to 45 year old formerly sedentary women as a starting workout? etc.
So if all goes well at the interview, I expect to do a few free shifts, and after that get officially employed. I'd encourage my current clients to join up there, if they don't want to I can still train them outside.
