If you’ve gone through the process of considering why you want a career change, and you’re committed to making a shift, it’s time to focus on what you’d like to be
doing. If you’ve opened this guide, health and wellness are probably of particular interest or passion. Fortunately, there are plenty of directions you can go within
this growing field.
Many professionals find success with starting their own consulting businesses and offering a number of services as a result.
There are a wide variety of paths you can take in the health and wellness industry, no matter what you decide to specialize in. The first step in understanding which path is right for you is to consider what you want your day-to-day life to look like. You may examine whether you:
- Want to work part-time or full-time
- Would like to work for yourself or for a company
- Want to work alone or with a team
- Want a steady paycheck and health benefits or if flexible hours are important
- Are willing to commute to work or if you’d like to work at home
Of course, there are benefits and drawbacks to any career choice. Full-time employees may not have much scheduling flexibility, while self-employed people may stress about not having a steady income, for example.Understanding what will make you happiest in your new career will help you discover whether you’d rather opt for employment or more of an entrepreneurial path. In some cases, you can combine the two by being employed and also starting your own business on the side.In each of the health and wellness industry specialties we’ll cover below, both paths are available to you. We’ll also touch on a few examples of specific jobs you could have in each specialty — it’s important to note these are only a small set of the many, many careers people in the field take on.
Nutrition Professional
Nutrition is a complex and ever-expanding study of how food impacts the body. For many people, deciding exactly how to eat for optimal health is confusing. The science is always evolving and much of the information, especially online, is untrue, incomplete, or even contradictory. A nutrition professional gives clients guidance and coaching that helps them navigate healthy, tailored eating plans and make meaningful changes.
Nutrition Careers
EMPLOYMENT
Corporate Wellness Consultant
You can work in a corporate environment alongside HR to drive wellness efforts for employees. In this role, you might work part-time or full-time in an office, warehouse environment, healthcare facility, or other location. You may assist with developing educational materials or give seminars on healthy eating habits. You could also be an on-retainer consultant who helps several companies every week with their wellness programs.
Nutritional Supplement Sales Representative
Your nutrition background will equip you to speak intelligently about a supplement’s specific benefits and the science behind them. Many people in this role travel to visit health food stores, spas, wellness centers, co-ops, and grocery stores. Nutritional supplement sales representatives often work on a commission-basis and have a flexible schedule.
Weight Loss Counselor
A weight loss counselor helps people understand the role of nutrition in supporting weight loss and overall health. Many weight loss centers, spas, and wellness centers rely on their counselors to help with one-on-one sessions and lead group discussions. Often (but not always) people who become counselors have had a weight loss journey themselves and want to use their experience to help others.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Become a Private Chef
If you love to cook and want to work closely with your clients, becoming a personal chef could be a great option. Personal chefs prepare healthy meals most of the time from their clients’ kitchens. They also have the opportunity to take a consultative approach with clients—crafting meal plans around their lifestyles, teaching them to cook, and helping them form new habits.
Start an Online Business
The internet gives you instant access to millions of people worldwide. Online entrepreneurs in the nutrition space may utilize social media, YouTube, blogs, and more to connect with people about their nutrition habits. Many business owners build courses, run digital support groups, or offer subscription-based packages. We cover some of the basics for How to Start Your Online Nutrition Business in one of our recent blog articles.
Start a Restaurant
An exciting way to serve people healthy food is to start your own restaurant or food truck. As the owner, you’ll have control over how your menus are constructed, where you source your ingredients, and what goes into a dish. If you enjoy cooking and want to reach people en masse, this could be a great route for you.
Other Career Ideas:
- Nutrition and wellness consultant
- Nutrition and wellness writer
- Health food store owner
- Nutrition educator
Health Coach
Health coaching is all about supporting people in developing a healthy lifestyle through physical activity guidance, nutritional advice, and behavioral change. Coaching, much like a coach on a sports team, develops skills to educate and inspire clients. Many health coaches choose to take a holistic approach by looking at the big picture of a person’s health and how multiple factors work together — for example, lifestyle, diet, emotional well-being, and family history.
Health Coaching Careers
EMPLOYMENT
Recovery Coach
A recovery coach may work with people on their overall health in order to support them in recovery from addiction to drugs or alcohol. Recovery coaches may work in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centers, wellness centers, or even in people’s homes. In this job, you’ll have a deep understanding of the science of addiction and how to help people make lifestyle changes to overcome it.
University or College Health Coach
Students often deal with a number of factors that may have implications for their health such as stress, irregular sleep schedules, and poor eating habits. A health coach at a college or university will have the opportunity to work with students and identify areas where they can make more positive choices for their overall health.
Corporate Health Coach
More and more companies are hiring health coaches as part of their wellness initiatives. Health coaches may work in a corporate setting to lead weight loss support groups, offer smoking cessation programs, or educate people on healthy habits. Corporate health coaches may even offer extra resources, such as videos and worksheets, or form coaching groups on the side to help employees further.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Start a Health Coaching Consultancy
Many health coaches choose to start their own businesses so they can set their own hours, rates, and work with the clients they really enjoy working with. Many health coaching business owners choose to hire other accredited professionals to offer their clients a wider range of services. Owning your own business gives you the flexibility to work when and where you want and make important decisions about business growth.
Create Online Courses
By building and selling online coaching courses, you can distribute information to people whom you might not ordinarily get to reach. Course topics can run the gamut from how to raise a healthy child to ways to holistically improve bodybuilding performance. By building and selling courses, you can explore what you’re passionate about and share that information with paying customers.
Become a Private Health Coach
Private health coaches work one-on-one or in small groups with clients who are looking to improve their overall health. Many people enjoy private coaching as it allows them to foster a deep, personal relationship with their clients. It also allows them to be very specific with their guidance and plans rather than needing to cater to a group.
Other Career Ideas
- Health consultant
- Health writer
- Mindset coaching
- Health speaker or educator
Personal Trainer
Although personal trainers are well-versed in workouts and strength training, that’s definitely not the limit of their expertise. In fact, with comprehensive education and certification programs, that’s just the beginning of the personal training journey. As a trainer, you can work with clients to help manage stress, lose weight, reduce risk of chronic disease, increase athletic performance, quit smoking, and accomplish other significant health goals. Trainers work in a variety of settings and assist clients in moving toward long-term health and wellness.
Personal Training Careers
EMPLOYMENT
Workshop Facilitator
As a workshop facilitator, you can put together highly impactful workshops that drill down on one particular topic. These workshops often take place at wellness centers or gyms. In this role, you’ll research a particular topic and create a presentation that’s designed to appeal to a group. You might also create hands-on activities and handouts to help people absorb information.
Sports Team Trainer
As a personal trainer, you have the ability to address the needs of a specific sports team. This will give you the opportunity to learn the deeper aspects of a sport’s demands. For example, you might support a cycling team and help members with cross-training activities that keep them from overtraining their leg muscles. In this role, you’ll be part of a team’s resources that include coaches and physical therapists.
Injury Rehabilitation Specialist
Unfortunately, many people have accidents or get injured throughout the course of their lives. Trainers focused on rehabilitation may work in homes, hospitals, or rehabilitation centers alongside physical therapists to help people physically recuperate. For example, a trainer might help someone who has been in a car accident learn arm exercises to regain strength.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Your Own Gym
Many fitness trainers are excited by the idea of having their own space to train clients, employ their own handpicked staff, and create community. Gym owners may specialize in a particular type of exercise or approach. Owning a gym allows you to also host events, develop local partnerships, and set your own rates.
Private Personal Trainer
A private personal trainer will work with people individually or in small groups in gyms, outdoor settings, or even their homes. By working for yourself as a personal trainer, you’ll work closely with clients and create an exercise regime that works for them. Personal trainers often work nontraditional hours to accommodate clients before or after they need to be at their jobs or with their children, for example.
Fitness Writer
Personal trainers are extremely well-versed in the science of the fitness world through their education. If you like to write and enjoy diving into a variety of subjects, a fitness writing career might be a great choice.
Other Career Ideas
- Program Specialist
- Fitness Director
- Wellness Director
- Personal Trainer Manager
- Athletic Performance Coach
Fitness Instructor
While personal trainers tend to work closely with clients, often one-on-one, fitness instructors thrive in group class settings. Putting together classes requires a high level of creativity and flexibility as well as knowledge about many of the most popular group offerings such as HIIT, spin, muscle conditioning, and circuit training. There are also more specialized classes that need insightful, experienced instructors, like those who lead groups in Pilates, yoga, aquatic exercises, kickboxing, stability ball training, indoor cycling, prenatal fitness, and youth fitness.
Fitness Instructor Careers
EMPLOYMENT
Fitness Instructor Manager
As a certified fitness instructor, you’ll have the knowledge to identify in others what makes an effective fitness instructor such as technique, enthusiasm, and skill in adjustments. As a fitness instructor manager, you’ll be able to help select a roster of instructors that’s well suited to a particular gym or studio.
Yoga Instructor
Yoga is different from most other forms of teaching as it focuses on breath, mindfulness, and balance as well as strength. Instructors may choose a number of styles from Bikram to Vinyasa. Instructors will typically spend their day teaching various scheduled classes and supporting students in balance, meditation, and breathing activities.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Open Your Own Studio
If you love teaching fitness, it’s possible you may want to take your involvement to the next level by opening your own studio. As a studio owner, you’ll decide on the branding, look, and feel of the studio and style of exercise to teach.
Teach Online or App-Based Fitness Classes
Many fitness instructors will video record their classes and put them online for people to purchase. Increasingly, people are developing mobile applications where people can take their fitness on-the-go. By simply reading the instructions or following prompts, users get the luxury of group instruction right from their phone.
Other Career Ideas
- Kickboxing instructor
- Corporate fitness instructor
- Dance or barre instructor
- Speaker or fitness writer
- Gym manager
