30 Fitness Interview Questions You MUST prepare for (Part 1)

In one of our earlier blogs, “Sell Yourself in the Interview!” we detailed the preps the fitness professional must do before the interview. The questions that may be asked in the interview are hard to predict but not very easy to anticipate!

At the end of our personal trainer courses, we conduct a useful workshop on how to prepare for job interviews. After all. Professional skill sets need to be delivered to the client in the gym or elsewhere indoors or outdoors. To open the doors (no pun intended), you need to do exceedingly well in the interviews.

The feedback that we got from our students – as also, other fitness professionals – has motivated us to present a collection of questions that must be anticipated.

In this 3-part blog, we address 30 possible questions, ten of which are taken up here in this first part.

In India, this kind of question has become common in FITNESS interviews only in the last two COVID19 years. It has been a standard question in interviews when applying for jobs in retail and marketing. In India, as across the world since earlier times, the interviewer wants to know how you have been helping clients negotiate the gym and offering expert advice is just part and parcel of your daily routine.

If you are newcomer, do not be afraid to say you have no experience but this is how you plan to serve the client – and then give specific examples of how you will help customers. Your examples may not be fitness-specific. If you have customer servicing experience in another career and it can be applied in Fitness, mention these too. Come with examples of when and how you helped family and friends. The key point here is to show to the interviewer how well you understood the person’s needs and then communicated effectively.

instructorship and the kind of fitness or exercise format that you want to be in will influence the kind of gym you want to work for.

Do you want to specialise in helping clients build body mass and muscle and work in a Crossfit box or a purely strength gym? Do you want to train only to male or female clients – or, you are comfortable training both? The type of gym that you ultimately end up applying to work in will help you answer this question with ease. Is the gym a part of a chain. will the job be a transferable one? So, do your homework well in this area.

Obviously, the successful session will depend on the success with which the client is progressing towards his / her goal.

There are at least 16 types of fitness goals and a vast majority of clients will have a permutation and combination of them. So, your response ought to include the following points –

• Some fitness goals are easier to achieve – e.g. muscle mass – while some others need more effort from the clients – e.g. fat loss. Now what if the client has hypertension and obesity?
• The success of a specific session will be gauged on the accomplishment of the training goals for that day (microcyle) in an injury free and safe manner. That the session has been a success will be decided mutually by the client and you – so, to find this, you will give your post-session feedback to the client and gently nudge responses from him / her!
• A session or microcyle is just one step on the path to achieving mesocycle and macrocycle goals. So, each session must be evaluated in the context of the mesocycle and macrocycle – did it help the client and you move forward?
• If possible, share with the interviewer a recent example of a client that you have worked with. Do explain your approach to personal training and the methods – remember, we have eight general training technologies – that you use/d to make each session a success.

To become a fitness professional, you must hold some form of a recognised qualification. Generally, you will need to have enrolled to a certificate program which may be as short as three months or as long as six months to complete.

Reach the interview venue readily prepared for your interview with the copies of your certifications. If you are looking for a job within India, be sure to carry your “qualification” certificate (QC) which is the certificate that states that you have successfully completed a personal or fitness trainer course. If the QC has an expiry date, be sure to carry the renewed certificate. Whether or not the QC requires renewal, if it is more than two years old, please see that you have completed at least 20 hours of additional training in the form of CEs / CPDs.

If you are looking for job in countries that maintain a national register of exercise professionals, be sure to hold the certificate of the correct “Level”. In addition to the QC, you must also carry the accreditation certificate. For instance, in our case, the Mumbai University certificate is the QC while the EREPS Level 4 certificate is the accreditation certificate. This latter certificate is required for converting your personal trainer qualification certification to the locally required level – e.g. to CIMSPA level in UK or Category A level in UAE REPS, and so on.

You may also present certificates which show you have done additional training – e.g., in Pilates, Plyometrics, etc.

One thing for sure: the interviewer will ask you questions on the subjects covered by the certificate. For example, he / she may even ask you to demonstrate an exercise in Pilates on Mat if you present the relevant certificate!

If you are FACPR-AED certified, be sure to be asked questions in this area – e.g., what is an AED   how many chest compressions and breaths make one CPR cycle? For that matter, if you say you sing well, you may even be asked to sing a song at the interview! So, prepare and practice the exercises that are covered by the certificates.

First, ask yourself what makes you different from other fitness trainers. Also, ask your family members, friends and fitness colleagues.  How will you be different from other trainers?

As part of this response –

• summarise your qualifications and certifications
• outline your previous experience
• mention occasions when you were awarded for your work or when you received testimonials from clients
• mention some of your own unique qualities – e.g., –
  • language skills in English and other language/s
  • additional training and certifications indirectly related to Fitness but will help you in your professional – e.g., MS Office suite, massage therapies, injury rehab, etc.