Health Coach Resume Examples for You to Use This Year

What to highlight in a health coach resume

Improving people’s relationships with their health and bodies starts by creating the best resume that shows you have the right skills. To do this, you’ll need to highlight:

• Health coach skills
• Education and certifications
• Work experience

How to write a health coach resume

There are three resume formats that will decide the structure of your resume. If you choose a chronological resume format, you’ll focus on your years of work experience. If you are a new health coach with little work experience, you will want to focus on your skills using a functional resume format. However, if you have gaps in your employment history or are changing careers, you will want to use a combination resume format to highlight skills and experience.
 
Once you have decided on the resume format, you will write the following resume sections:
 

Header

The resume header contains your contact information. This helps the hiring manager contact you with information or updates on your application. In this section, you should include your full name, email address and phone number. Also, include your city and state in this section. You can include professional portfolio links. This is a good way of giving the hiring manager or recruiter more information about your health care knowledge and accomplishments. 
 

Resume summary or objective

A resume summary is a 2-3 sentence paragraph highlighting the most engaging parts of your resume. You should strive to catch the hiring manager’s attention by highlighting your key skills and qualifications in health education. You can also summarize your years of experience in this industry. 
 
If you’re just starting your coaching career, you should consider using a resume objective. A resume objective is similar in length to a resume summary but instead focuses on your career intentions and goals with your wellness programs. How to write an objective for a resume? You should explain why you’re the ideal candidate by focusing on how your skills will translate into making you a great health coach.
 

Skills

A resume skills section offers the hiring manager a mixture of health coach-specific hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are specific to a health coach role and are gained through training or certifications, such as healthy lifestyle techniques. Soft skills aren’t role specific but revolve around interpersonal skills, such as communication skills. 
 

Refer to the job description and highlight the key skills for the job. Adding these keywords to your resume will showcase you as the ideal candidate. Some good skills for a resume often highlighted for a health coach job include:

• Interpersonal skills 
• Understanding of dietary requirements 
• Vital signs (blood pressure, etc.)
• Counseling clients 
• Disease management 
• Planning coaching sessions 
• Knowledge of health conditions 
• Health screenings
• Motivational interviewing 
• Understanding of mental health issues
• Encouraging physical activity 
• Social media 
• Microsoft (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• Health promotion 
• Designing action plans 
• Protecting well-being
• Working with personal trainers
• Weight management 
• Wellness coach
• Holistic health coach
• Compassion 
• Empathy 
• Stress management

Work history

If you’re applying for a senior health coach role or if you choose a chronological resume format, your work experience section might be the most important. You should list your experience in reverse-chronological order, starting from the most recent job. 
 
Under each job title, you can provide 3-5 brief bullet points that highlight your key duties. You can also provide metrics such as your success rates with previous clients. This helps to support the claims made in your resume summary or objective. 
 

Education

Typically, health coaches need a bachelor’s degree in health and nutrition or sports science. Alternatively, you can gain certification in health coaching. To become a certified health coach, you’ll need an ACE Health Coach Certification from the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). It is possible to become a health coach without a bachelor’s degree. For example, you can pursue a Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification or a Health Coach Certificate (HCC) to learn the trade.
 
Focus on including your most recent and highest degree or certification in your resume’s education section.