Life Coach Resume Examples & Guide 2023

At work, you embrace different roles. Sometimes you’re a friendly face who listens. Other times, you’re the master strategist helping a client plan for their future.

You’ll do everything to help your clients live to their full potential. Why? Because you’ve got the life coach skills and are not afraid to use them.

Time to present them on a life coach resume in a way that will convince recruiters.

In this guide:

• Life coach resume example that’s more inspiring than others.
• What are the essential life coach skills to include on a life coaching resume.
• How to write a powerful life coach job description for a resume.
• Instructions on how to write a life coach resume from start to finish.

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Want to check other resume examples related to counseling and wellness? See here:

• Camp Counselor Resume Example
• Massage Therapist Resume Example
• Occupational Therapy Resume Example
• Psychology Resume Sample
• School Counselor Resume Sample

You might also check our collection of 200+ resume examples for various professions.

Life Coach Resume Example

Life coaches help their clients overcome problems, build resilience, and achieve their personal or career goals to lead more fulfilled lives. A professional life coach resume must highlight essential life coach skills such as mentoring, communication, and interpersonal abilities. 

Read on to learn how to write a resume for a life coach:

1. Use a Good Life Coach Resume Format

You should be proud of yourself—you’ve chosen a career in an industry that’s expected to grow. But there’s a downside to it. So far, there are no market entry regulations for life coaches, which means that professionals must prove they’re different from wannabe lifestyle gurus.

If you want to appear professional, your life coach resume must look sharp. Start choosing the proper resume format—go with the reverse-chronological resume style if you’ve had a steady career progression.

Now, let’s talk about appearance. You know it matters. While we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, most people do. And so will recruiters looking at your resume. That’s why you need a resume layout that’s elegant.

Here’s how to format your resume for a neat look:

• Use easy-to-read resume fonts such as Times New Roman, Calibri, or Verdana.
• Set the font size to 10–12 for paragraphs and 13–14 for headings.
• Organize the information using bullet points and distinct resume sections: header with contact information, resume profile, work experience section, resume skill list, education section, and a few additional sections such as certifications.
• Apply 1-inch resume margins on all sides of the document.
• Go with a one-page resume if you’ve had less than 10 years of experience.
• Save the final version of your resume in a PDF format.

If you’re not confident in your editing skills, use free resume templates or try an online resume builder that will handle most of the work for you.

2. Write a Powerful Life Coach Resume Profile

Want your life coaching resume to make a great impression straight away? Write a strong resume profile. Depending on your experience level, you can go with a resume summary or a career objective.

How to write a life coach resume introduction:

1. Start with a personality adjective.
2. Add your professional title.
3. Mention years of experience or your specialization.
4. Describe how your work can benefit the employer.
5. Provide an example of a career achievement from your past.

No coaching experience yet? Don’t worry. If you’re just starting in the life coaching industry, write an objective resume and highlight your interpersonal and communication skills.

3. Create a Strong Life Coach Job Description for Your Resume

Want the hiring manager to say: “This is the person we’re looking for?”

There’s an easy way to do that. Write a life coach job description that shows you’ve done it all, and put it in your work experience section.

How to write a life coach job description for a resume:

1. Read the job ad carefully and find the job requirements.
2. Think about which of your past duties involved the required skills and responsibilities.
3. List your previous jobs from the most recent to the oldest, and add 3–4 bullet points describing your duties.
4. Add one key achievement for each job.
5. Make sure each bullet starts with a resume action verb and features some resume keywords.

Sounds easy if you’re a seasoned professional. But what about those beginning their life coaching careers? Just include situations that involved giving or receiving feedback, leading or supporting others, and communicating with various individuals. You can also skip this section and extend the education section of your life coach resume.

4. List the Must-Have Life Coach Skills on Your Resume

Many aspiring individuals make the mistake of including life coach skills only as a list on a resume. Yes, adding a skill list to a resume is important, but that’s not the only place to show off your knowledge and abilities. In fact, you should sprinkle your skills all over the resume and feature them in the work experience descriptions, resume profile, and other parts of the document.

But let’s clarify which life coach skills truly matter. 

Here are the 10 essential life coach skills to add to your resume:

1. Active Listening

It’s more than just listening to your clients. It’s also picking up on hidden things between the lines, reading body language, and noticing nonverbal cues. Active listening also involves a variety of listening techniques, such as rephrasing, paraphrasing, summarizing, and reflecting. A professional life coach must know how to use them during sessions.

2. Awareness

Awareness goes both ways. A good life coach must be aware of the client’s social and cultural background and current state of mind. This will help them choose the most appropriate techniques and methods to facilitate progress. But they also need to help clients become aware of their emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs, as awareness is the key to positive changes.

3. Effective Communication

Clear communication between the coach and the client is the key to a successful session. A life coach must use direct language that the customer can understand while always being respectful and appropriate. They can also use metaphors or analogies to illustrate more complex concepts. Demonstrating good communication skills can inspire clients to use effective communication in their own lives.

4. Interpersonal Skills

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that interpersonal skills are a must for a life coach. They can help establish rapport with clients and approach difficult situations. That’s why empathy, emotional intelligence, patience, cultural sensitivity, and persuasion are some of the must-have life coach skills.

5. Leadership Skills

Life coaches often take the role of a leader. They must know how to maintain authority and inspire their clients while being empathetic and supportive. That’s when leadership skills, such as motivation, boundary setting, and resilience, are critical. 

6. Marketing Skills

Many life coaches run their consulting businesses. In order to gain clients, they need to know how to advertise their services. That’s when marketing skills come into play. Gaining knowledge of content writing, social media management, email marketing, and online advertising can prove worthwhile. But remember also to learn how to advertise your services face-to-face during networking events or job interviews.

7. Mentoring Skills

Life coaches can take the role of a mentor in various settings. A good mentor can help others overcome their limitations, support development, and facilitate growth. In order to do that, they need a bunch of skills such as effective listening, trustworthiness, and giving and receiving feedback.

8. Organizational Skills

Organization is one of the essential life coach skills. You must know how to plan effective sessions, outline personal development plans, handle time management, and keep your workspace free of distractions. On top of that, you’ll probably need to handle accounting and taxes. That’s why good organizational skills are so essential.

9. Problem-Solving Skills

Must-have life coach skills include problem-solving abilities. They’re needed to help clients overcome their difficulties to attain personal and professional goals. Some problem-solving skills that can be especially useful for a life coach include adaptability, analytical thinking, critical thinking, making informed decisions, and research skills.

10. Relationship-Building Skills

This is not a shocker. A good relationship between the client and the life coach is essential. But life coaches also need to build relationships with other professionals, such as the staff of nonprofits, social service agencies, and educational institutions where they might find employment. Relationships-building skills such as open communication, inclusion, emotional intelligence, and networking abilities can help.

Many of the skills mentioned above are soft skills. They can be difficult to learn via traditional educational methods such as training or schooling. However, there are other ways to develop them. 

Here’s how you can work on improving your life coach skills:

• Learn from more experienced colleagues: if you work in a larger organization, ask other staff members for feedback or try to observe their sessions. If you’re an entrepreneur, try to meet other life coaches in your area. Many professionals are happy to share advice with less experienced colleagues.
• Gain professional certification: online courses can help you learn the theory about life coach skills. However, in-person certification training also includes practice modules that will help you gain experience.
• Find professional associations: joining a coaching organization can help you meet other professionals, participate in workshops, and attend conferences. These opportunities can help you gain more knowledge about life coach skills.
• Get a coaching degree: many universities offer master’s degree programs in psychology or human services, emphasizing life coaching. They can help you advance your career and better understand critical life coach skills.

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5. Include Education on Your Life Coach Resume

For professional coaches, education usually doesn’t end once they graduate. According to ICF’s global survey, 99% of coach practitioners have completed coach-specific training. But many employers also expect life coaches to have specific degrees, such as psychology, social work, and human resources.

So, when adding education to your life coaching resume, do it properly:

• Mention your highest educational credential.
• Add the name of the institution and the years of study or graduation date.
• List your GPA if it’s above 3.7.

If your work experience is minimal, include additional information, such as student projects, relevant coursework, academic accomplishments, and extracurricular activities. 

Got a coaching certificate? That’s great! You can list it in the education section or make a separate certification section on a resume and put it there.

6. Pick Additional Sections for a Life Coaching Resume

The core of your life coach resume is done. Now, let’s make it more unique. Think of additional information that can help you stand out from other candidates. Maybe you run a popular YouTube channel with mindfulness exercises? Or authored a few articles about combating burnout in the workplace? That’s all valuable info.

Select from the following resume sections:

• Associations and Memberships
• Conferences
• Languages
• Personal Interests
• Volunteer Experience
• Publications

No matter which you choose, make sure the information you include is relevant to your profession.

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Key Points

Now, you know how to write a life coach resume to help you attain your career goals.

Here’s a reminder of the steps you need to take:

1. Use the reverse-chronological resume format and a good resume layout.
2. Introduce yourself with a personal profile.
3. Add a strong life coach job description to your work experience section.
4. Include the key life coach skills in your resume.
5. Mention education on the life coach resume.
6. Choose a few extra sections to add more information to your resume, such as volunteer experience or publications.
7. Don’t forget to send a live coach cover letter that highlights your passion for the job.

And that’s all!

Would you like to clarify any of the points made in this article? Have you got any useful tips for other readers? Let me know in the comments below.