A swim instructor teaches swimming techniques, swimming strokes, and water safety rules to students with varying levels of swimming abilities, assists more experienced swimmers to enhance their swimming abilities, and assesses the progress of students and adjusting teaching programs accordingly. They monitor students to prevent accidents or injuries, implement ground rules, plan swimming sessions that take into account student's abilities and progressive development, identify incorrect swimming techniques, and correct students appropriately ensuring that the swimming pools and locker rooms are kept clean and tidy.
As a rule, they require certain skills such as CPR and first aid and American Safety Instructor and Basic Swim Instructor certifications. They should have sound knowledge of proper swimming techniques and water safety, effective communication skills, and be passionate and enthusiastic.
A high school diploma or GED is enough, plus being an experienced swimmer, for example a retired professional swimmer. On average, they earn $24,852 per year, which translates to $11.95 per hour. Though generally, they earn anywhere between $18,000 and $35,000 a year.
Swim Instructor Overview
Swim Instructor Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a swim instructor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.14 an hour? That's $23,175 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 13% and produce 45,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Swim Instructor Do
There are certain skills that many swim instructors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, listening skills and motivational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a swim instructor, we found that a lot of resumes listed 23.1% of swim instructors included lifeguard, while 17.7% of resumes included customer service, and 6.3% of resumes included positive attitude. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the swim instructor job title. But what industry to start with? Most swim instructors actually find jobs in the non profits and education industries.
How To Become a Swim Instructor
If you're interested in becoming a swim instructor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.6% of swim instructors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.8% of swim instructors have master's degrees. Even though most swim instructors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a swim instructor. When we researched the most common majors for a swim instructor, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on swim instructor resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a swim instructor. In fact, many swim instructor jobs require experience in a role such as lifeguard/swim instructor. Meanwhile, many swim instructors also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or volunteer.
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Swim Instructor Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a swim instructor can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as nanny, progress to a title such as lead teacher and then eventually end up with the title account manager.
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Average Salary for a Swim Instructor
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Villasport Swimming Instructor-Villasport Swimming Instructor-Villasport | Villasport Villasport | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $47,50001/27/2021 $47,500 |
YMCA of Dane County Swim Instructor-SUN Prairie Ymca Swim Instructor-SUN Prairie Ymca | YMCA of Dane County YMCA of Dane County | 01/25/2021 01/25/2021 | $22,95701/25/2021 $22,957 |
City of Ames Swim Instructor Swim Instructor | City of Ames City of Ames | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $21,66301/23/2021 $21,663 |
Village of Orland Park Learn To Swim Instructor Learn To Swim Instructor | Village of Orland Park Village of Orland Park | 01/19/2021 01/19/2021 | $22,95701/19/2021 $22,957 |
YMCA of Greater Cleveland Swim Instructor Swim Instructor | YMCA of Greater Cleveland YMCA of Greater Cleveland | 01/19/2021 01/19/2021 | $18,36601/19/2021 $18,366 |
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Swim Instructor Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Swim Instructor. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Swim Instructor Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Swim Instructor resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Skills For a Swim Instructor
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 23.1% of swim instructors listed lifeguard on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and listening skills are important as well.
- Lifeguard, 23.1%
- Customer Service, 17.7%
- Positive Attitude, 6.3%
- Communication, 5.9%
- Emergency, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 42.0% See All Swim Instructor Skills
Best States For a Swim Instructor
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a swim instructor. The best states for people in this position are California, Washington, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Swim instructors make the most in California with an average salary of $33,536. Whereas in Washington and New Hampshire, they would average $32,324 and $31,296, respectively. While swim instructors would only make an average of $31,232 in Vermont, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Oregon
$30,889
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
$30,715
Avg. Salary
3. California
$33,536
Avg. Salary
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