What skills should a Interior Designer put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Coordination 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 Interior Designer list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes 20-20 Technologies 20-20 Design, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Creative Cloud software, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign. 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 Interior Designer work?

O*NET records 27 titles for this occupation, including Designer, Interior Design Consultant, Interior Design Coordinator, and Certified Kitchen Designer. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Interior Designer need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 84% 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 Interior 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.

Interior Designer resume example

A resume for a Interior Designer needs to show the work itself: plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Day to day that means work like this: design plans to be safe and to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA); use computer-aided drafting (CAD) and related software to produce construction documents. 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.

Designer
Interior Design Consultant
Interior Design Coordinator
Certified Kitchen Designer
Color and Materials Designer
Commercial Interior Designer
Decorating Consultant
Interior Decorator
Registered Interior Designer
Bath Designer
Kitchen and Bath Designer
Bathroom Designer
Decorator
Design Consultant
Furniture Arranger
Home Decorator
Home Designer
Home Lighting Advisor

O*NET records 27 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.

Design plans to be safe and to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA).
Use computer-aided drafting (CAD) and related software to produce construction documents.
Research health and safety code requirements to inform design.
Confer with client to determine factors affecting planning of interior environments, such as budget, architectural preferences, purpose, and function.
Advise client on interior design factors, such as space planning, layout and use of furnishings or equipment, and color coordination.
Coordinate with other professionals, such as contractors, architects, engineers, and plumbers, to ensure job success.
Review and detail shop drawings for construction plans.
Inspect construction work on site to ensure its adherence to the design plans.
Render design ideas in form of paste-ups or drawings.
Subcontract fabrication, installation, and arrangement of carpeting, fixtures, accessories, draperies, paint and wall coverings, art work, furniture, and related items.
Select or design, and purchase furnishings, art work, and accessories.
Estimate material requirements and costs, and present design to client for approval.

16 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.

Design plans to be safe and to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA), for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Use computer-aided drafting (CAD) and related software to produce construction documents, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Research health and safety code requirements to inform design, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Confer with client to determine factors affecting planning of interior environments, such as budget, architectural preferences, purpose, and function, 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.

20-20 Technologies 20-20 Design
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Creative Cloud software
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Autodesk 3ds Max
Autodesk Architectural Desktop
Autodesk AutoCAD
Autodesk Revit
Autodesk Revit Architecture
Autodesk VIZ
AutoDesSys form Z
Computer aided design and drafting software CADD

29 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.

Architects' scales
Computer aided design CAD multi-unit display graphics cards
Desktop computers
Digital camcorders
Digital cameras
Digital tape measures
Drafting scales
Drafting triangles
Electronic scales
Graphics tablets
Laptop computers
Personal computers

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.

Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign

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
02Critical Thinking
03Reading Comprehension
04Speaking
05Coordination
06Service Orientation
07Social Perceptiveness
08Complex Problem Solving
09Writing
10Judgment and Decision Making

Knowledge areas

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

Design
Customer and Personal Service
Building and Construction
English Language
Sales and Marketing
Administration and Management
Computers and Electronics
Public Safety and Security

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.

84%Bachelor's Degree
4%Some College Courses
4%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 Interior Designer do?: Plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Day to day that includes work like design plans to be safe and to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) and Use computer-aided drafting (CAD) and related software to produce construction documents.
What skills should a Interior Designer put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Coordination 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 Interior Designer list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes 20-20 Technologies 20-20 Design, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Creative Cloud software, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign. 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 Interior Designer work?: O*NET records 27 titles for this occupation, including Designer, Interior Design Consultant, Interior Design Coordinator, and Certified Kitchen Designer. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Interior Designer need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 84% 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 Interior 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.