Career Switch - Opinions Please!

Alright MC Bros...

Here's my situation. I am currently in accounting work. It's what I went to school for and have a "decent" job...nothing special. It's the benefits that keep me there more than the pay. The problem is it's boring and not really what I want to do. I have a possible job opportunity as a personal fitness trainer(which I have no experience - but is what I would love to do) at a local gym who is offering great pay, they will train me, a help me to get my national certification. Is there anyone out there who is/was a personal trainer and would like to share their opinion?

The other night I was talking to someone saying how much I hated accounting and that my dream job would be a personal trainer and it kinda just fell into my lap, but I wanted some opinions before I made the decision.

training is something that takes alot of work and sometimes its a salesman type job bro. I would ask you how big is the gym. Its all about clients with most positions, they pay the bills and you get payed on how many clients you have. If the company is gonna give you a salarie or fixed rate pay that is comparable to what you have now then go for it. I have yet to find a company that will do that.....this is a great time of the year to be a personal trainer....alot of people are "gonna get buff" about this time of year

bro its not all its cracked up to be. i just worked at a gym where the management people did most of the selling and i did the training, but its no fun at all to train everyday people who never been in the gym before. this was no fun at all. very frustrating. non-fitness minded people cant really comprehend diet and exercise, and therefore wont get any results. and that isnt too fulfilling, especially when you spewing your knowledge on deaf ears.

DB006 said:

bro its not all its cracked up to be. i just worked at a gym where the management people did most of the selling and i did the training, but its no fun at all to train everyday people who never been in the gym before. this was no fun at all. very frustrating. non-fitness minded people cant really comprehend diet and exercise, and therefore wont get any results. and that isnt too fulfilling, especially when you spewing your knowledge on deaf ears.

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Exactly what I was thinking.

Is it that bad of an occupation? I've heard negative comments about it before. What if I put it this way. I will be making the same $$$ only instead of sitting on my ass all day trying to make deadlines, getting my balls busted by my boss, entering month end reports which I fall asleep doing and couldn't give two shits about, I could..."""train everyday people who never been in the gym before. this was no fun at all. very frustrating. non-fitness minded people cant really comprehend diet and exercise, and therefore wont get any results. and that isnt too fulfilling, especially when you spewing your knowledge on deaf ears""".

I figure, I spend all my free time at the gym or reading stuff about exercise and diet anyways, why not live it right?

I agree with everyone, it is definately not as "cool" of a job as it seems. I thought personal training was what I wanted to go to school for so when i got the opportunity to actually get trained and certified I jumped on it. However, I found it is a "selling" job. You must sell yourself and if you are not good at sweet talkin people, you probaly wont be that successful. I can not tell you how much time I wasted waiting around for clients to show up and never did. It is also got very frustrating to work with people who would seriously eat McDonalds right before they saw me or better yet I would see people walking in the doors, just putting out their cigarette. If you can find a gym where most of the people are very fitness-minded or even just goal orientated it may be something to look into but I would not quit your day job. Personal training is a hot growing field but only a very few make big bucks from it. Good luck to ya

WELL HERE IN JERSEY IT PAYS BIG BUCKS SO LONG AS YOU RUN YOUR OWN COMPANY FOR EXAMPLE, WE HAD 1 GYM THAT WAS in transition of moving to a new facility bigger and better, down the road, we had about 10 trainers in there and about 3 maybe 4 made very very good livings, granted they were up at 4:30am and not home until 10-11pm at night some nights but they were also the ones who eat,shit and sleep fitness and they were decent competitors, all of the top 3-4 trainers who made a good name for themselfe through their own blood and sweat did well, i mean new beamers, new jaguars,new darangos,cadilac trucks, PIMP TYPE SHIT, BUT AGAIN THEY BUSTED THEIR FUCKING ASSES ONE GOOD FREIND IN MY WEDDING GRADUATED COLLEGE AND STAYED A TRAINER AND MADE GOOD MONEY AND NOW OWNS HIS OWN SMALL BUT VERY NICE FACILITY, THE OTHER GUY A MAN WHO WAS OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT OTHER CHOICES HE HAD AND JOBS HE HAD WORKED AND DECIDED TO GO AT IT FULL TIME AND HE HAS WHAT LOOKS TO BE IT ASLL FROM HOUSES TO LUXURY CARS, BUT HE ALSO LOOKS LIKE THE BIONIC MAN DAY IN AND DAY OUT FOR YEARS,,,

AND THEN THE OTHER 2 TRAINER MADE DECENT LIVINGS AS WELL, WHEN THE GYM MOVED EACH OF THE 4 OR 3 OF 4 OPENED A SMALL TRAINING CENTER NEAR BY AND THEY ALL DO WELL,

WHAT IM SAYING IS, YOU HAVE TO KNOW IF THIS IS WHAT YOU REALY WANT CUASE IT IS ALOT MORE WORK THEN YOU MIGHT THINK, MORE SO ON THE ENTREPENURIAL SIDE OF BUSINESS, IN STAYING BOOKED AND BUSY, IT DOESNT TAKE ANY GENIUS TO STAND THERE AND TELL SOMEONE WHAT TO LIFT, TO REALY SUCCEED IN IT YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IF YOUR GOING TO GO FULL STEAM AND TAKE NO SHORT CUTS, IVE SEEN MORE GUYS SAY AND TRY TO BE TRAINERS AND THEN FIND OUT IT ISNT FOR THEM THEN ANY OTHER TYPE OF JOB TURNOVER, THEN AGAIN I LIVE IN THE GYM SO MAYBE THATS WHY,LOL

ANYOW I CAN PM YOU THEIR WEBSITES AND SUCH SO U CAN GET SOME IDEAS IF YA LIKE, YOU HAVE TO PROMOTE YOURSELF BRUTHA, THEN AGAIN MAYBE JERSEY IS JUST MORE FIT THEN ALL YOU OTHER COUNTRY ASS MOTHER F'ERS SO THEIR IS MORE JOB OPPERTUNITY HERE, WHO KNOWS, ALL I KNOW IS EVERY DAMN CORNER HERE HAS A GYM AND EACH WITH ITS OWN niche` LIKE FOR WOMEN, FOR SENIOR, FOR GAYS, FOR SINGLES, YADA YADA YADA, BUT THEY ALL SEEM TO DO WELL AND GROW OUT, SO THERE MY FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR YA.LOL

AND ALWAYS TELL UR POTENTIAL CLIENTS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE CONGLAMORANT* BIG GYM IN HOUSE TRAINERS, IS THEY HOUND YOU FOR MORE AND MORE TRAINING SESSIONS, YOU HOWEVER ARE THERE TO WORK YOURSELF OUT OF A JOB THE SOONER THE BETTER FOR THEIR BENEFIT, 9 TIMES OUT OF 10 YOU'LL GET ATLEAST A MONTH UP FRONT AND 1-2 MORE TO FOLLOW

My good buddy is a personal trainer. He's got his certificate and everything. He said what sucks is not garunteed money, you have to keep clients and keep getting clients.

His hours are decent and he makes decent money. He actually put it to me like this, "Some months you have more money than you know what to do with...and then all of a sudden you're considering bankruptcy."

He aslo said it's tough working with people who just have no drive at all.

I've actually been with him at another friend's house where he said he had to go into work shortly for a couple hours. He got a call and hung up and said, "Shit, there goes $75." Not 5 minutes later he got another call, "Shit, there goes $30." Two cancellations. Fuck that, I need job security.



On the good sides, he has banged 2-3 of his former clients. And, you gotta love the free gym membership and since you're there, no excuse not to workout.

To me it's not worth it.

This is a tough one...and I have until Friday to make the call.

Pro's:
I get to do something that I love and could actually start a career in.
I could devote more time to bodybuilding and expand my knowledge.
No sitting at a desk all day.
I wouldn't want to kill myself every month end.
I'd be in better shape.
I'd get to bang 2-3 of my former clients.
Free gym membership.

Cons:
Less job stability(can't count on a certain income).
Benefits not as good.
Frustrating when people don't understand/listen.
My girlfriend would frown upon me banging my clients.

you will always have ur degree in this field and all the knowledge from school to fall back on if this turns out to be either not what you want or maybe even something you cant afford to try to build on right now financialy, as we have all said it takes some serious dedication and a good back log of clients under your belt until you get consistant paycheck, but just think of all the money you and uncle sam can play "hide and seek" with if you choose to let it all go and do what you want to do for YOU!,lmao

Maybe consider doing 1 part-time for now, I train part-time and i make pretty decent cake but its not enough to leave my other job, my day starts @ 4am and ends sometimes at 10pm, but i find time to train myself and keep sanity.

Maybe consider doing 1 part-time for now, I train part-time and i make pretty decent cake but its not enough to leave my other job, my day starts @ 4am and ends sometimes at 10pm, but i find time to train myself and keep sanity. Its a struggle and it doesnt happen overnight bro.

Pumped78 said:

Maybe consider doing 1 part-time for now, I train part-time and i make pretty decent cake but its not enough to leave my other job, my day starts @ 4am and ends sometimes at 10pm, but i find time to train myself and keep sanity. Its a struggle and it doesnt happen overnight bro.

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I think this may be my best option right about now. I'll see how it goes part time and make my decision from there. thanks for all the input!

Presser - if ya wouldn't mind, please pm me those links so I can check them out. Appreciate it bro!

Well this didn't work out exactly as I thought, I guess it wasn't exactly what I expected...lots of details were left unclear when I first became interested in the position. Thanks for all the input guys, looks like i'll just suck up the daily grind for now.
And Presser, I appreciate the links, don't think I ever thanked you. Actually very informative and i'll keep that stuff in mind for the future.