Ultimately Equinox is not for everyone, as there is very little work life balance. I'd go as far as saying it is horrible, but it depends on how much you enjoy dedicating your time to being at work. You will be asked to do things on your days off, but ultimately they are to benefit you. Such as coming in last minute for a member who wants to work with a trainer on their free session. Shifts change month to month so it can be very annoying for someone who has commitments to keep. Management tries to do a good job of accommodating everyone, but it is tough to juggle dozens of trainers schedules. Once you get your clients set, you will have a bit more freedom to choose when you come in. But at the same time, there are still requirements for continuing education and additional responsibilities you will have outside of JUST training members. Many clients come in from 5 AM-10AM and 4PM-7PM, so your days will likely be split. I suggest living close to the gym, because many of the top trainers are coming and going from open until close. You may not think split shifts sound bad, but it can be very stressful knowing your day doesn't really ever end even if you aren't "working" the whole time. The first few months will have you putting in 30-40 hours a week between floor shifts, meetings, education courses, and sessions. Keep in mind you may have days where you have a 15 minute meeting at 830 AM, a client at 10AM-1AM, a floor shift from 12PM-4PM, and a free session at 6PM so there is a lot of downtime where you are encouraged to "build your business" which really just means sending out emails and writing up programs. You are only compensated for 1 hour a week of this, but it adds up to much more time needed.
Floor shifts can be somewhat boring at smaller clubs if you are working alone and may feel tedious, but ultimately they are there to help you grow your business and are what you make of them. If you use them correctly it is worthwhile, but some shifts are very dead and you will be hard pressed to find new members.
Perhaps the biggest con is the constant stress of losing a member, getting sick, going away on vacation, or anything else that will affect your income/ability to earn benefits. This never goes away, so you will be dealing with this for the entirety of your time hear unless you move on to a management or corporate position. It is a bit better at Equinox than other gyms, because so many members do take part in training you can usually pick up new members quickly once you are well established and earn your place at a higher tier level. There are very few trainers who are older than 40-50, it is definitely a young guys/girls game. Definitely a very high stress position that makes the prospect of retirement or taking time off never really seem feasible.
It seems a bit silly, but the juice bar (Juice Press) is absolutely horrible at the NJ, NY, and CT locations. Many members and almost all staff have disdain for it. Overpriced, all vegan, and they try to hard to reinvent the wheel for basic things like salads and protein shakes that taste unflattering. Equinox knows this is a problem and has sent out an email to the North East locations saying they are sticking to their guns (they have to, they have a contract) but we all really hope things will change once the contract is up. It would be nice of gym staff could get lunch in the gym and have choices of animal protein, shakes that don't cost $10 (I am not exaggerating), and basic things like regular bottles of water and protein bars.
Finally, it would be nice of Equinox would improve the quality of the equipment they purchase. This will vary by location, but they spend thousands of dollars on gimmicky products (like VIPR) but don't even have basic things like push sleds, tires, etc. If Equinox wants to be different, they don't really need 50 different machines which trainers use less and less. Get more variety in your equipment to address clients who want to train for a sport and encourage more functional fitness. They have some stuff like TRX, kettlebells, plyoboxes, etc but it seems that they are quick to waste money on things we really don't want or need.
