Become a Health and Wellness Consultant

Across the globe, people are becoming more and more aware of how a healthy diet, regular exercise, and stress reduction techniques can increase their personal wellness. A health and wellness consultant is a professional who assists individuals in achieving and maintaining optimum wellness by advising them about healthy diets and exercise, as well as methods to cope with stress. Becoming a health and wellness consultant could offer a rewarding business opportunity.

Steps

Getting Educated

  1. Learn about the career. Before going down the career path towards becoming a wellness consultant, you should get a sense of what the career entails. A health and wellness consultant is a diverse career with a variety of specializations and focuses.
    • In short, a health and wellness consultant helps people live betters lives physically. As a health and wellness consultant, you would advise people on nutrition, physiology, anatomy, and fitness.[1]
    • You would work one-on-one with clients looking to improve certain aspects of their health and well-being. You would have to think of solutions for your clients depending on their lifestyle, physique, and individual wants. As a health and wellness consultant, you have to have a diversity of tactics and plans at your disposal to fit the needs of a number of different clients. For example, the fitness plan you would write up for a single mother of three would be vastly different than the one you'd write for a single 33 year-old businessman.[1]
    • Communication is an important skill to have if you're looking for a career as a wellness consultant. You need to understand your client's lifestyles, comfort zones, and personal wants and needs in order to best assess their situation and advise them on how to improve. You also need to communicate in a way that is encouraging and non-judgmental.[1]
    • There are a variety of specializations in health and wellness consulting. Some people focus on homeopathic, natural lifestyle changes. Others focus on fitness and exercise. Others focus mainly on nutrition. The specializations you choose later in your career will depend on your individual interests and expertise.
  2. Get started in high school. If you're interested in becoming a health and wellness consultant, your path should begin in high school. Develop a strong interest in fitness and health early on.
    • Enroll in health classes in high school. In addition to the regular PE requirements, see if your high school offers any electives on nutrition or fitness.
    • You can get certain certifications, like a CPR certification, as early as high school. Look into what programs are available in your area. Many hospitals and community centers offer CPR classes.
    • Talk to your teachers about wanting to be a health and wellness consultant, especially teachers from health or fitness related courses. They may be able to suggest college programs.
    • Take summer and after school jobs that focus on fitness, nutrition, and overall well being. Work at a yoga studio or health food clinic. Lifeguard. Coach little league. Work at a summer camp.
  3. Choose the right undergraduate program for your goals. There is not a standard educational path to become a health and wellness consultant. The level of education you need will depend on your specific goals, but you should start tailoring your education towards health and wellness during your undergraduate years.
    • Some schools offer career development or certification programs focusing on a specific aspect of health and wellness consulting. They may offer a path to become a fitness consultant, nutrition consultant, holistic health, and other areas that fall under the health and wellness umbrella. These programs may be shorter, and cheaper, but they also tend to limit your focus to one area. Unless you're certain of the path you want to go down early on, it's better to get a four year degree and keep your options open.[2]
    • Biology, health sciences, kinesiology, and nutrition are majors you may want to consider if you want to be a health and wellness consultant. As the career itself is often multifaceted, it might be a good idea to double major. Also, health and wellness requires communication skills and focuses on client's emotional well being as well as their physical well-being. A minor in psychology or communications may help.[2]
  4. Consider furthering your education. Yet again, there is no set educational path to becoming a health and wellness consultant. You do not necessarily need more than an undergraduate degree, but furthering your education beyond a bachelor's degree could help you in the job market. This is particularly true if you want to work in a particular field of health and wellness consulting, such as placing your primary focus in fitness or holistic wellness.
    • If you're particularly interested in one aspect of health and wellness consulting, such as nutrition or fitness, a master's focused in that area can help. You may even consider a doctorate if you're particularly ambitious, but the pay off may not be worth it. While health and wellness consultants are generally high earners, earning around $70,000 a year, student loans can add up fast. Consider the potential debt before going for a PhD.[3]
    • Some schools offer 2 to 3 year master's degrees focusing in health that can prepare you for a career in health and wellness consulting. University of Michigan, for example, offers a program in health informatics that teaches you how to work with and inform the general public about the importance of fitness, nutrition, and overall well being. This degree path, or a similar program, could provide you a good foundation for a career in health and wellness consulting.[4]

Starting Off

  1. Consider licensure and certification. Unlike like becoming a real estate agent or accountant, there is no all encompassing license of exam for health and wellness consultants. The requirements for the career vary by state, field, and specialization.
    • Figure out what city or state you would ideally like to be employed in and figure out what their specific qualifications are to becoming a health and wellness consultant. If you're unsure of where to find this information, find the contact information of a working health and wellness consultant in the area and ask. Some states may require additional training via a certification program, and a subsequent licensing exam, while other states may allow you to begin practicing as long as you have a relevant college degree.[5]
    • Certification programs are available in most states, broken down by speciality. You can also find programs online, but many people prefer to learn hands-on skills. The certification program you choose should be catered to your interests. If, for example, you're interested in more holistic approaches to wellness and health find a certification program in holistic medicine and exercise.[6]
    • Do your research before committing to any single program. See what kind of training is offered. A program with a lot of hands on work may reflect higher on you in the job market as opposed to an online program, for example. However, an online program may also be cheaper and shorter. Weigh the pros and cons of each program you research.[6]
  2. Gain the necessary skills. As you begin training and certification programs, begin to work on developing the proper skillet. You want to enter the job market with a diversity of skills specific to your field.
    • Communication skills are vital, so any part time jobs you take during training should involve working with people. Sales positions, customer service work, and volunteering to coach little league are all things that can help you bolster communication skills.[2]
    • Business skills are also important. It might not be a bad idea to take a college course in business or auditing online during your training. You can also ask universities about the possibility of auditing a course.[2]
    • A solid knowledge of nutrition and health is vital to becoming a health and wellness consultant. Make sure you stay up-to-date on the latest health and fitness trends and know how to research their validity. You might want to subscribe to a variety of health and fitness magazines to get a sense of what's currently going on in the field.[2]
    • Empathy is also important to the career path. This is something that's difficult to learn directly, but doing volunteer work that involves working one-on-one with those in need can help.
  3. Learn how to maintain any certification and licenses. Certifications and licenses generally come with a set expiration date. Make sure you understand when your license expires and what you can do to renew it. For most programs, you'll have to take additional coursework and seminars once a year to maintain your license.

Finding Work

  1. Seek jobs in the right places. A health and wellness consultant can work independently, but it might be difficult to set up your own practice right away. A variety of institutions hire consultants regularly. Try looking for work at some of the following places:
    • Fitness and Wellness Center
    • Medical Center
    • Private Practice
    • Yoga Studio
    • Day spa
    • Natural food store
    • Restaurant
    • Corporation
    • School[7]
    • It's also a good idea to return to any institutions you previously worked, interned, or volunteered at and see if they're hiring. If not, they may be able to recommend you to an institution that is hiring and put in a good word for you. Networking is one of the main ways people find quality work.
  2. Work on your resume. In order to land a good job, you need to work on your resume. Start drafting your resume as you prepare for your job search.
    • A resume should have a consistent format throughout. There are no hard and fast rules about punctuation and using bullet points versus small paragraphs for job descriptions, but know that any choices you make should be consistent.[8]
    • You should also use resume "buzzwords." These are impressive words to make your work experience sound as impressive as possible. For example, instead of saying, "Helped customers make good choices while shopping for organic food" you could say something like, "Enhanced customers' shopping experiences by educating them on a variety of organic products." Many websites include lists of buzzwords.[8]
    • Only list relevant experience to the job you're looking for. For a health and wellness consultant, stick to experience related to health, fitness, nutrition, and other aspects of health and well being. The fact you're a certified yoga instructor, for example, is more important than talking about waiting tables in college.[8]
    • You should always have a friend or family member proofread your resume for you. Many people become typo blind when reading their own work and might miss obvious spelling and grammatical errors.
  3. Practice good interview skills. Good interview skills are a must have when you're on the job hunt. Make sure you practice interview skills while sending out your resume so you'll be prepared when an interview offer arrives.
    • Show up about 5 minutes before the interview time. Make sure you're dressed in professional attire. If you're unsure of the company wardrobe, it's better to overdress than to underdress.[9]
    • Always prepare for an interview. You should read up about the company online ahead of time and have a sense of its philosophy, ethics, and goals.[9]
    • At the end of the interview, ask questions. When the interviewer asks you if you have any questions, pick a question that's open ended rather than a logistical inquiry about when you can expect to hear back about the job. Something like, "What is your company's philosophy?" or "What does an average day in your company looks like?" are sure to impress your interviewer.[9]

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://wellnessproposals.com/wellness-articles/wellness-consultant/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 http://learningpath.org/articles/Becoming_a_Natural_Health_Consultant_Salary_Job_Description.html
  3. ↑ http://holisticnutritiondegree.org/career-options-in-nutrition-and-wellness/
  4. ↑ http://healthinformatics.umich.edu/about
  5. ↑ http://www.afpafitness.com/blog/starting-a-new-career-in-health
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.afpafitness.com/nutrition-certification-programs
  7. ↑ http://www.integrativenutrition.com/career
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/resume-writing-tips/how-to-write-a-resume/article.aspx
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2015/02/05/5-tips-for-instant-interview-success
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