Fitness trainer and Pilates instructor job in Germany

As mentioned on this forum many times before (Did you read past discussions about related topics?), it is quite difficult to find a job in Germany without language skills. Especially roles with contact to or the need to communicate with customers, clients or partners are impossible to get without speaking their language. I guess fitness instructor falls into this category - how would you instruct people without them understanding you??? Therefore I think you are well advised to focus on learning the language in the first months to a year, and look for a job after that.

Beppi is correct about the importance of learning German, especially in jobs that you need to talk to people. In general, this is the most important factor to success. Yet I can imagine a scenario that such a trainer might have a chance. At a large place with multiple instructors there is not the risk that customers feel nobody is around to instruct them or answer questions in German. I think the people who go to fitness studios are the kind most likely to speak English comfortably. Mostly young and likely more educated than average since they have the money to pay to use a gym.

Much of such a job is physical and thus can be communicated through simply showing and acting out to emphasis. It's about demonstrating and using body language. Possibly an open minded place might think the advantage of someone with a good training and experience might outweigh the language limitations - at least for the short run. For the long term they would probably expect one to work hard on bringing their German language skills up to speed.

Arjunpr: There are, of course, many fitness parlours who do employ people like you. However, since the customers are predominantly German, your chances depend on your language knowledge. After all, you must understand and be able to tell the customer what they should do. How good is your German?

I do not think any fitness parlour would hire you, as long as other candidates with better German are available. That will cut you off from probably 99% of the jobs in the field.
It is naive to think that one can work here without knowing the language well. And also your social life would be severely limited without it.

Like Beppi mentioned, knowing German is likely necessary; why should anyone hire you when they can hire people who speak the language? Knowing the names of machines is not a factor; explaining usage in detail in German is.

But another factor is getting the visa to come to work in Germany. Usually, non-EU people need to have a degree and job skills that are in high demand. Unskilled laborers are very unlikely to manage this. And for an employer to hire you and assist in the process bring you to Germany only makes sense if they could not find someone already in Germany. Again, why would they bother since there is no shortage of trainers? Thus even if you learned good German; it might not actually help much.

And fitness studios have been shut down for over a year due to Covid. Many might not re-open. Even when they do, they are not likely to be hiring new people any time soon. The job market scenario for such a field would seem dismal for the near future – and at the present moment impossible.

What is a "PG"?
There are part-time jobs that don't require German knowledge, but they are usually the less well paid ones (at or sometimes even below the legal minimum wage). Examples are harvest helper, supermarket shelf stocker or parcel delivery driver.