Fitness specialist skills for your resume and career

Communication is the most important soft skill any new and seasoned professional can have. Effective communication demonstrates your command of the information and situation at hand and assists in earning the trust and respect of your clients and peers.

Exercise scientists are well-versed in various areas, including exercise assessment, exercise programming, biomechanics, exercise instruction, and patient/client education.

I think verbal and written communication is lacking quite a bit in today's college graduate generation. This is coming from someone who was a college graduate just a few years ago, but since my time as an undergraduate and students today, there is a clear inability for a large percentage of students to pick up on social cues, maintain a productive conversation, or write a respectable email. Jobs in our field are competitive and interviews are still conducted in a face-to-face format. Even if you go to work for yourself, let's say as a personal trainer, then you'll still be interacting with people in a personable manner.

Each interaction can be looked at as if you are marketing yourself to that potential client or employer and if communication is a weakness, that is an issue. Therefore, I'd recommend graduates taking a gap year to 1) find a temporary job that puts you into contact (face-to-face or online) with various people throughout the day so that these skills can be sharpened over time and 2) practice! Excellent written and verbal skills are honed through practice. Everyone can improve these skills and practicing, watching YouTube videos from communication experts, or even having someone read over your email or recording you converse can all be helpful tools for the recent graduate student.

Well, using the word "skills" is somewhat misleading. First and foremost, the greatest tool that Exercise Physiologists will have in the coming years is their knowledge base. The field is changing so rapidly that our scientific knowledge of exercise and the human body is broadening at an incredible pace. As it relates to skills, I would say that being able to apply the aforementioned knowledge base will be a skill. The field has become so sophisticated in terms of cellular, molecular, and genetic components that an individual will have to be "skillful" in relaying that information to the application. Lastly, laboratory skills (i.e., blood analysis, metabolic measurements, genetic identification) will be necessary.

Although the ability to design and implement training programs that are effective at helping clients and patients reach their goals while simultaneously motivating them to adhere to their program is has always been the crux of what we do, additional technology skills are becoming increasingly important. The ability to market using social media, where most people get fitness information from, for marketing has been implemented for years, but now being able to deliver products and services through a variety of pathways, most involving technology, is a growing area. Communications skills, although not technical, so to speak, are some of the most important "soft-skills" for those in Kinesiology/Exercise and Sport Science to possess.