What skills should a Commercial and Industrial Designer put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Speaking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Commercial and Industrial Designer list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes 1CadCam Unigraphics, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Creative Cloud software, and Adobe FreeHand MX. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Commercial and Industrial Designer work?

O*NET records 40 titles for this occupation, including Design Engineer, Designer, Industrial Designer, and Product Designer. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Commercial and Industrial Designer need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 68% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Commercial and Industrial Designer role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Commercial and Industrial Designer resume example

A resume for a Commercial and Industrial Designer needs to show the work itself: design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Day to day that means work like this: prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment; modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Design Engineer
Designer
Industrial Designer
Product Designer
Mechanical Designer
Mold Designer
Product Design Engineer
Product Development Engineer
Sign Designer
UI Product Designer
UX Product Designer
Art Glass Designer
Automobile Designer
Bank Note Designer
Bicycle Designer
Bike Designer
Boat Designer
Body Stylist

O*NET records 40 titles for this occupation in total.

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.
Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
Investigate product characteristics such as the product's safety and handling qualities, its market appeal, how efficiently it can be produced, and ways of distributing, using, and maintaining it.
Develop manufacturing procedures and monitor the manufacture of their designs in a factory to improve operations and product quality.
Participate in new product planning or market research, including studying the potential need for new products.
Read publications, attend showings, and study competing products and design styles and motifs to obtain perspective and generate design concepts.
Fabricate models or samples in paper, wood, glass, fabric, plastic, metal, or other materials, using hand or power tools.

17 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

1CadCam Unigraphics
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Creative Cloud software
Adobe FreeHand MX
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Apache Maven
Apple iOS
Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt
Autodesk 3ds Max
Autodesk AliasStudio
Autodesk AutoCAD

62 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Compact digital cameras
Desktop computers
Laptop computers
Liquid crystal display LCD video projectors
Personal computers
Universal serial bus USB flash drives

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Figma
user research
wireframing
prototyping
design systems
usability testing
Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Active Listening
02Reading Comprehension
03Complex Problem Solving
04Critical Thinking
05Speaking
06Judgment and Decision Making
07Operations Analysis
08Time Management
09Coordination
10Monitoring

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Design
Engineering and Technology
Mechanical
Production and Processing
Computers and Electronics
Mathematics
English Language
Physics

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

68%Bachelor's Degree
15%Some College Courses
12%Associate's Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Commercial and Industrial Designer do?: Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Day to day that includes work like prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment and Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
What skills should a Commercial and Industrial Designer put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Speaking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Commercial and Industrial Designer list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes 1CadCam Unigraphics, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Creative Cloud software, and Adobe FreeHand MX. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Commercial and Industrial Designer work?: O*NET records 40 titles for this occupation, including Design Engineer, Designer, Industrial Designer, and Product Designer. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Commercial and Industrial Designer need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 68% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Commercial and Industrial Designer role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.