I’m sorry he feels stuck. I don’t know much about personal trainers other than I have a childhood friend that is making a living as a personal trainer. She doesn’t live in the US so I can’t compare salaries and costs of living but she only started making a decent living when she became independent with her own little studio and slowly established a pretty well off clientele. She either does training sessions at her home or at her clients homes depending on each person’s needs. She lives and breathes physical exercise and on her “vacations” she teaches snow and water sports. This is probably no help, but I thought I’d share her story because your description of your son reminds me very much of her.
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my 23 yo D is having to move back home because rents have gone up so much. She is in a field that does not pay that much (non profit). she is hoping to find a spot in some communial living htat she knows about. As far as not knowing what to do, she has been all over the place and just got her recent job and hopes despite the lower pay , it will make her happy
My S just got his first job and moved to a new area, but he is really stretching it with rent, and he is a programmer.
I think my daughter is going to have to move home due to the tight rental market here. She’s been looking for months. Her landlord just gave her 30 days notice so she’s running out of time.
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Some parents are also having trouble finding a rental. If your kids have a home to go home to, they are fortunate.
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This is true. We have a large home our kids can come back to. Is it ideal or what he envisioned? It’s not. Gas prices play a part in where he can afford to rent as well. When you’re earning $19 an hour and paying $6.50 a gallon, there’s not a lot of wiggle room.
As someone noted earlier, our son’s first order of business needs to be figuring out what he wants to do, and this is true. But, I recognize this is not the world I launched into in the early 90s.
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How about the Coast Guard, rescue swimmer, for example.
That’s not something we’ve ever discussed. But I could bring it up.
What about getting his Personal Trainer certification and networking for other opportunities through the competition circuit. Clubs would probably love a trainer with a 4 year degree in kinesiology.
https://www.personaltrainercertification.us/locations/california
Edited to add: sorry just re-read he is a personal trainer, sorry.
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Probably every potential recruit to the USCG comes into the recruiting office thinking that they want to be a rescue swimmer or chase smugglers or something like that, rather than all of the other jobs that the USCG has (ship maintenance, logistics, administrative work, recruiting, evaluating standards for life jackets, etc.).
Is he a good swimmer, preferably with past experience as a lifeguard?
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He was never a junior lifeguard. He’s a decent swimmer, but probably not good enough for that. If you need someone to lift a 300lb stone, he’d be your guy 
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If he chooses to go into nursing, he may be in high demand when nurses are needed to help move an obese patient.
https://resources.nurse.com/critical-care-nursing-treating-overweight-patients
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Can he take a few business courses? Get some sort of business type certificates?
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How is he with kids? In affluent communities there are tons of places (tennis clubs, etc) who are looking for trainers to work with kids. If he has a degree and is a certified trainer he may have opportunity there. Also the HS teacher idea is a great one.
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I would not say he’s a kid person, but I suppose it depends on the age.
You’ve all been super helpful and have given up several ideas that hadn’t previously occurred to him, so thank you!
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Sample of one. Our neighbor just completed the COTA course of study, already has a full time job with benefits and a decent wage. And she had a bachelors degree first.
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Speaking of lifeguard, this was just in the news recently.
Some clubs here in SC are paying kids up to $50/hr; they’re desperate for guards.
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In some ways it’s easier than the world you launched into. The internet for one- “back in the day” you couldn’t just say to yourself, “Hey, what opportunities are there in the National Parks systems and do you need a degree in Forestry to get one?” and thirty seconds later have the entire array of Federal Government outdoorsy/physically active jobs arrayed in front of you! “Back in the day” there was no Glassdoor or other websites which can show- at least at a macro level- which professions and jobs pay what and is there a cost of living differential. “Back in the day” you needed to send/fax your resume and you needed to keep detailed records about who/when/how so you could follow up. Now you’ve got entire job search sites who manage both the application AND follow up process for you.
And back in the day you weren’t facing the tightest job market since WW2 where employers were desperate to hire!
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My 21 year old works fulltime at a restaurant making $12/hr plus tips. He works 4-5 days a week. (He took time off school during pandemic).
He pays his $700/month rent/utilities in his apartment he shares with 3 others (4 bedroom 2 bath). He pays for food and fun.
I pay his cell phone, health insurance, and his auto insurance. (Its all on family plans so low relative expense).
How many days and hours is your son truly working? How many free time hours does he truly have? And how is he spending his money? Does he have a nice start of savings built up?
Has he considered learning a trade as he seems to like more active jobs?
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Currently, it is rare for a permanent entry level position to be open to the public with the NPS, usually at very undesirable locations. And because everything is online now, there will be hundreds of applicants for those rare opportunities. Most positions are temporary, time limited to a few months. There is a policy for temp employees to become eligible to apply to permanent positions, but only after accruing 24 months of temp service with no break longer than two years. So at best, an employee would have to work for four years seasonally as a temp before being eligible to even apply to a job that might be open to them under this policy, which isn’t even mandatory, but optional for hiring managers.
So no, sometimes things aren’t as easy as they seem.
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