Are you ready to jump into your new career as a Swimming Instructor? First, you will need to splash up your unique and impressive Swimming Instructor resume to land you that dream job. Let us dive in. Have a look at our Swimming Instructor Resume Samples for a bit of inspiration.
But you know, being a Swimming Instructor is so much more than techniques and medals. Therefore you need to carefully craft your interview-winning, job securing resume to prove that you are more than just a Swimming Instructor.
What you can read in this article
Swimming Instructor Resume Samples
(Free sample downloads are at the bottom of this page)
Swimming Instructor Resume Writing Guide
Resume Sections
1. Contact Information:
At the top of your resume, state your first and last name, address, and contact info, such as your email and phone number. Suppose you have other professional social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Feel free to include those URLs, too.
2. Resume Summary:
This is the first impression you need to make. In one short paragraph of no more than 3-5 points, summarize the best of the best of your working experience. Pro tip: Align this with the requirements in the job listing you are applying for.
3. Qualifications Summary:
A Swimming Instructor doesn’t need any formal qualifications, such as a degree or diploma. Some positions don’t even require a high school diploma, but as with most jobs, the more qualifications you have, the better the positions, and pay scales, you may be able to qualify for.
4. Relevant Swimming Instructor Experience:
State your employment history and be sure to include details of any job training you have undergone. Stick to the relevant employment Swim Coach history and align the work with those used in your job listing. Whether you are looking for an entry-level position or have more experience, it is crucial to showcase your relevant achievements to secure that interview. Most Swimming Instructors start their careers in high school, already, so include your summer Swimming Instructor gigs or holiday jobs. Include dates and details. Make an impression by using bullet points to list these, sticking to the top 3-5 positions to keep your resume neat.
6. Skills Summary/Key Skills:
Recruiters often get several resumes, and reading through each one is time consuming many will simply skip straight to your skills summary, so make sure it is worthy of their attention. You need to list your soft skills, hard skills, and physical adeptness. Also, sprinkle these throughout your resume to impress your future employer. This will also increase the credibility of your application. Be sure to align your skills with those listed in the job listing.
7. Licenses/Certifications/Relevant Coursework/Training:
As a Swimming Instructor, you are there to protect and save lives. This does require some licensing. Attend refresher courses and training programs to stay on top of your skills
What to Highlight in a Swimming Instructor Resume
Being a Swimming Instructor is about more than looking like a cast member on Bay watch. While your physical fitness is imperative, it isn’t all your future employer is looking for.
First, make mention of the environment and clientele you have worked within the past. Swimming Instructors work with people from all walks of life, young and old. There are as many types of Swimming Instructors as there are kinds of people
Many swimming Instructors are found in gyms or private swimming schools, but you can also work at a public pool, where you can teach classes year-round. Regardless of the work setting, your job as an instructor will entail just about the same thing: to teach and demonstrate strokes and techniques, from butterfly to freestyle. You teach your pupils how to dive and float and how not to sink but swim. You are in the mermaid-making career.
Secondly, highlight your certifications. Which qualifications you have received and any particular experience you have obtained. You will list your accreditations later in your resume, too, but it is vital to elaborate on the extent of your training and experience, also. Working at a traditional pool will typically require a basic swimming instructing certification. When working at a resort or leisure park, your employer will want to see a resort water swimming instructing certification.
Having these or other related qualifications will show your future employer how knowledgeable you are. A swimming technique certificate is the bare minimum requirement for teaching swimming. With this, you will also be qualified to teach dive groups. You will be a part of a swimming community and continuously work towards bettering your skillset and qualifications. You aren’t an island, but the water connecting it, exchange ideas with other instructors.
Understanding and empathy are two critical requirements for a Swimming Instructor. Tell your hiring manager about these traits and soft skills. Each person who enters your pool is swimming through their unique storm. Their learning paces will be different, depending on their age, personality, and exposure. A good teacher will know all these things.
Your prospective clients want to know organized and professional you are. Keeping good records of your classes and planning for what is needed is beneficial to you and your clients. Learn how to set goals for your students or teams based on their abilities, and plan their exercises and drills accordingly.
Now for those well-trained lungs of yours: Cheering your students on. A good coach is a good motivator. Not only will you be giving instructions, but you will also be motivating your swimmers, both during lessons and swim meets. A good teacher should also be creative, to adapt a training program if it isn’t working well enough. And your students should enjoy their time with you, as well as work towards achieving goals.
Next is one of the most critical points: saving a life. Around water, there is so much that can go wrong. State your life-saving techniques you can perform, such as CPS, advanced water rescue, first aid measures, oxygen administration, and using automated external defibrillators. Add some more detail by including your experience in this area. Any rescues you have carried out, treating injuries and dressing the knee of that one kid who doesn't take the “no running inside the pool area” rule seriously.
As said before, you do need to be in good physical condition. This includes, but is not limited to, a clean bill of health granted to you by your physician. While it isn’t required to attach your medical certificate to your resume, you need to pass it with flying, no, swimming colors. You will have to state the name and contact info of the physician who cleared you. Your recruiter will also want to know about your fitness and endurance levels. Be specific about these abilities, such as how fast you can run a 100-meter sprint, the fact that you can swim 4500 meters in 7,5 minutes and 50 meters in 53 seconds, if you can lift 110 pounds or more, have 20/20 vision and excellent multi-limb coordination.
Elaborate on your training that’ll make you stand out to your prospective employer. A variety of certification options are available at institutions like the YMCA, American Red Cross, or the American swimming instruction association. Pretend you’re a five-year-old and brag about how you can swim 500 yards without pausing or dive 10 ft deep. Also, mention how many training hours you have behind you.
A few added extras
- State the locations or areas you’re willing to work in.
- Make a note of your availability and specify if you’re only looking for a summer job or would instead work weekends or afternoons.
- Keep in mind the number of swimmers under your surveillance.
- Indicate your knowledge and experience with enforcing rules and regulations, safety standards, accident avoidance measures, and protocols to follow in case of injury or death.
- This isn't often thought of in a Swimming Instructor setting, but make mention of any additional languages you can speak, especially if you are job-fishing at a beach or public pool.
Career Summary & Examples
If your career summary takes more than 20 seconds to read, you’re overdoing it.
Facilities like fitness centers, recreational facilities or resorts, etc., use ATS systems (applicant tracking system) to weed out the applications that don’t meet the requirements. They do this by looking for keywords and phrases in your resume. If you don’t match, you get cut.
To beat the bots, mimic the words and phrases in the listing for the job you’re applying for. You may need to tailor your resume to suit every listing you apply to ensure your resume doesn’t get tossed out. For your resume to make it to your future employer's hungry eye, use these words and phrases, especially in your career summary. These words are referred to as SEO words, and they highlight your skills, abilities, experience, and qualifications. The more SEO words in your resume, the better your chances of getting that interview.
Three Example Career Summaries
Summary example 1:
“Skilled Swim Instructor with advanced training in physical education and athletic training. Experience in all facets of practice swims teams at local and regional levels to compete nationally. Adept in the seasonal progression of athletes and developmental phases of individual swimmers, always acknowledging behavioral and cognitive development alongside athletic goals.”
Summary example 2:
“Punctual, hard-working, and professional Swimming Instructor. Determined to increase the reputation of the facility by implementing professional skills by the customer and team interactions. Over ten years of experience as Team Coach. Taught the swimmers techniques and exercises to help them grow into fast, strong swimmers.”
Summary example 3:
“Enthusiastic Swimming Coach with a profound ability to teach proper swimming techniques to special needs kids. Immense ability to work with beginner as well as advanced students by executing expert teaching methods. Comprehensive knowledge of safety rules and precautions of swimming pools. Exceptionally adept in organizing and instructing water safety and swim classes for individuals or large groups.”
Job Descriptions & Responsibilities
Your employer wants to see specific skills and activities in your resume. We have compiled a list of some of these examples for you below:
A Swimming Instructor:
- Teaching technical swimming techniques, various swimming strokes, and water safety rules to students with different levels of swimming abilities.
- Assisting more experienced swimmers to enhance their swimming skills.
- Assessing students’ progress and adjusting teaching programs accordingly.
- Supervising students to prevent accidents and injuries.
- Planning swimming groups and lessons that take into account students’ abilities, goals, and progressive development.
- Identifying incorrect swimming techniques and coaching students accordingly.
- Ensuring that the swimming pool area and locker rooms are kept clean and neat.
- Champion open communication between parents and upper management, receiving positive feedback on parent-student relationships, and achieving lesson-based goals.
- Plan, coordinate, and teach learn-to-swim and water safety courses.
- Train to perform CPR along with first aid as necessary.
- Train in all areas of health safety such as CPR, WSI, and first aid assistance.
- Provide explicit, safe instruction using recognizable leadership skills.
- Design and implement a learn-to-swim program for ages 2-25.
- Help out with general upkeep of the pool and obtain WSI certification
- Attend and apply NCAA rules and compliance requirements-completion of the annual recruiting test.
- Facilitate students in social skills and peer groups based on students' IEP goals.
- Maintain on-site alertness to respond to incidents and provide immediate first-aid care.
- Demonstrate the use of aids such as kickboards, diving rings, lifejackets, etc.
- Display patience and understanding to students, explaining concepts in multiple ways to not exclude any swimmers.
- Start with teaching students floating, kicking, freestyle, correct breathing, and stroke technique such as backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke.
- Train and supervise lifeguards in daily operations
- Assist management with organizing and supervising fellow swim instructors and lifeguards whenever needed
- Soft skills such as patience, work with multiple people and personalities at once, quick thinking, and problem-solving
- Quick response time in crises
- Require attention to safety and CPR certification.
- Assist in teaching water safety, provide CPR and swimming lessons
- Organize practices, work with swimmers on stroke technique, coach at local, regional, and championship swim meets.
- Conduct aquatics coaching for infants through to adults.
- Promote to opener/closer, and award additional classes teaching all ages from infants to adults and team lessons.
Highlight Your Accomplishments
Resist the urge to copy and paste some of your everyday duties. Despite what you may think, it won't do you any favors. Your accomplishments section also isn't a dumping ground for everything from your accomplishments from 1st grade. But now you get to sell yourself. Brag about your latest and greatest accomplishments relating to your swimming and swim teacher capabilities. Don’t be modest; really wow your hiring manager or future employer. State any awards you have received, your capabilities, and perhaps spice it up with a rescue you are proud of.
Pro tip: make your accomplishments measurable. Back them up with numbers and statistics, as you can see in the examples listed below. This is referred to as resume qualification.
Examples of Swimming Instructor accomplishment statements
- Promoted to lead the premier summer league program of the Man O' War Swim Conference (MOWSC) of approximately 300 participants ranging in age 5-18
- Analyzed the competition and strategy; created workout plans, scrutinized competition's event profiles in Team Manager and Meet Manager; completed with a season record of eight wins and two losses
- Trained individual swimmers to achieve team and personal goals; preseason meetings to establish goals and monitor the progress of athletes through phases of development; >95% improvement rate
- Team accomplishments: Lead teams to 2nd place finishes in conference championships, 12 MOWSC records
Education Section
You don’t need formal education, and you have the options of both full-time and part-time jobs. However, as stated earlier, traditional education does help. The more you have, the better. Also, be sure to include information on any exams and assessments you have completed during your career as a Swimming Instructor.
List your qualifications and accreditations and certifications. State the date of completion first, followed by the name of the qualification, institution, location, and state in which the accreditation has been acquired. If you have less than five years of working experience, include your high school diploma details similarly.
Here are some examples of a Swimming Instructor Resume in terms of education:
2020 – Current M.S in Physical Education, St.Louis University, Louisville, KY
2018 – 2020 B.S in Exercise Sciences, Wisconsin State University, Madison, WI
2016 – Head Swimming Instructor Accreditation, Starfish Aquatics Institute, Orlando, FL
Accumulated 700 supervisory water hours
2019 – Completed Fitness Assessment, National Aquatic Safety Company, (NASCO), Fort Wayne, TX
2018 Red Cross CPR and AED First Aid Certification, American Red Cross, Richmond, VA
2018 – Advanced First Aid Diploma, National CPR Foundation, Wellington, FL
2017 – Advanced Life Saving Techniques, United States Lifesaving Association (USLA), Ashville, NC
Swimming Instructor Resume Skills
Potential employers may vary in terms of their requirements, but skills (technical, personal, and soft/interpersonal skills) are standard across the board because safety is of the utmost importance. Wow, your employer with a skills matrix displayed below, rather than bullet points, better stick to the required 1-2 page resume limit. Include each of the skills below that apply to you (and work towards gaining those that don’t yet). Make three columns, dedicate one to physical skills, one too technical skills, and soft skills.
| Physical Skills | Technical Skills | Soft Skills |
| Manual Dexterity | Kickboards diving rings and pulls buoys | Situational Awareness |
| 20/20 Vision | Developing and revising curriculum | Stress Tolerant |
| Hand/Eye Coordination | Public relations | Leadership |
| Multi-Limb Coordination | Communication | High-Risk Behavior Identification |
| Endurance | Physical conditioning | Determined |
| Manlift or personnel lift to 150 lbs | Rules & regulations | Quick-Thinking & Decision Making |
| Nimble | Swimming strokes | Energetic |
| Depth Perception | Recruiting | Team Player |
| Peripheral Vision | Swim instruction | Detail Orientated |
| Swim 400 meters in 7 minutes | Injury management | Communication |
| Run an 8-minute mile | Pool maintenance | Trustworthy |
| Cleared Medical Record | Cross Training | Punctual |
Qualifications/Certifications associated with Swimming Instructors
| American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor (WSI) | Current lifeguard first aid adult CPR/AED certification | CPR Professional Rescuers and Health Care Providers |
| Surf Swimming Instructor | Aquatic Rescue Response Team certification | Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education |
| Infant CPR Training | Emergency Oxygen Administration | ASA/UKCC Level 1 Certificate for Teaching Aquatics |
| ASA/UKCC Level 1 Certificate for Coaching Swimming | ASA/UKCC Level 2 Certificate for Teaching Aquatics | ASA Level 2 Certificate for Coaching Swimming (Swimming, Synchronised Swimming, Diving or Water Polo). |
Action Verbs for your Swimming Instructor Resume
| Coordinating | Scheduling | Monitoring |
| Controlling | Problem Solving | Scanning |
| Tracking | Moving | Detecting |
| Organizing | Lifting | Rescuing |
| Spotting | Checking | Allocating |
| Swimming | Placing | Stabilizing |
| Handling | Carrying | Identifying |
| Supervising | Removing | Hoisting |
Professional Information on Swimming Instructors
Sectors: Sports, Tourism, Exercise Sciences, Recreation, Gym, Fitness, Leisure, Training, Aquatics
Career Type: Training, Teaching, Supervisory, Instructing, Servicing, Rescue, Coaching
Person type: Supervisor, Teacher, Rescuer, Coach, Responder, Trainer, Safety Professional,
Education levels: Post School Diplomas, Accreditations, Certifications, Licenses, Associate Degrees
Salary indication: $ 12.18 per hour on average (Payscale)
Labor market: 12% growth expected between 2019 – 2029 (BLS)
Organizations: Municipal Pools, Gyms, Ocean Beaches, Swim Schools, Universities, Cruise Ships, Recreational Facilities, Fitness Facilities, Outdoor Events
