I’m panicking. I’ve got to write a Yoga Teacher CV.

I haven’t had a regular job since I had my firstborn, now a staggering 13 years old. I’ve been self-employed doing various jobs, as well as bringing up our two children, and have managed to avoid the world of proper jobs.

Having said that, I’ve been a writer of blogs and articles since 2015, so I should know how to put words together.

But a CV has an added pressure of having to sell oneself, quickly to the intended employer. As well as listing all relevant experience, but only on ONE page, while looking professional, and reading clearly.

Why Do I Need One

I am very happy teaching my four classes a week. It is endlessly challenging, fun, funny, satisfying and rewarding.

However, I was unprepared for the level of time and effort that goes into the non-yoga-teaching aspect of managing your own yoga classes.

So, I have decided that it would be a good idea to become an employee of an established yoga studio. That way I don’t have to attract and retain students, market the class, book the venue, pay the venue, deal with staff at the venue who don’t have your class on their books despite the fact that you’ve been turning up for 6 months – but that’s another story. Also, being an Iyengar yoga teacher I wouldn’t have to do the lugging of blocks, bricks, belts, blankets and bolsters (all the yoga ‘b’s) from the boot of the car to the class and back.

I’d just need to prepare my class, turn up, teach it, get paid and go home again. BLISS.

That’s the plan anyway. But with more and more yoga teachers qualifying every year in the UK, I suspect that my CV will have to be impressive to land a job in a yoga studio.

Where Do I Start

My first port of call was good old Google: how to do a Yoga Teacher CV. The results were mainly American (and of course they call it a resumé).

But immediately it gave me an idea of what needed to go on the page. The brief synopsis of all the results pooled together looked like this:

• Name, type of yoga teacher, contact details, photo of you doing yoga
• 1 – 2 sentences about yourself and your teaching style
• Training, certification level and education
• Teaching experience
• Other relevant skills and work experience

I wasn’t sure about adding a picture of me, but the advice on the whole seemed to be that it helped the yoga studio get an idea of what you might be like. But it shouldn’t be some over-made up photoshoot, or a selfie on your iphone.

Getting On With It

The secret to my writing is not to overthink things at the beginning. I don’t plan it all out and have bullet points etc, I just start writing and then once I’ve started the blockage of resistance is swept aside by a torrent of writing and it all flows from there.

Sometimes what I write initially isn’t what I end up sending off to the editor, but it’s the getting going that’s the hardest part.

So, in keeping with this method, I just started my CV. I decided to do it on Indesign, a fairly old design software package that I use for editing newsletters and producing flyers. I’m really not a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve built up a basic toolbox on Indesign and I felt I could make it look more professional than just doing it on Word.

I popped my ‘Poppy’ logo on the top of the page, which immediately pleased me. My logo was designed by a very talented graphic designer friend, and it makes me happy every time I look at it – which is just as well, as it’s on almost everything I own now.

Then I wrote out my teacher training details, who taught me, where I did it and when I qualified. There. Already it didn’t look too bad.

Obviously, having only been qualified for 9 months, I don’t have a huge amount of teaching experience, but I put every little scrap of it on the page, and that didn’t look too paltry all written down either.

Once I’d added a picture in the corner, the Iyengar yoga trademark at the bottom and other relevant experience I’d pretty much filled up my page.

The Final Touches

My initial attempt wasn’t too bad. But my ‘About me’ section was a bit dry, and other sections were a bit wordy. So I emailed it to my husband, who is a dab hand with words.

At home that evening he went through it with me and we adjusted it together. After that I realised there were a few more things I could add, such as the fact that I held a valid First Aid certificate and fully comprehensive Public Liability Insurance. It’s easy to assume these things, but I’m sure it helps the Yoga Studio to be sure.

My final touch was adding a testimonial from a student at the very bottom. I’m not sure that this is accepted practice, but I felt that it would validate my confident assurances about what a wonderful yoga teacher I am.

I’m not holding my breath, but it was a useful exercise, and now if I ever need a CV again, I have it all ready and waiting.