Skills
Industrial Designer Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in industrial designers, and how to build and show them.
What skills do industrial designers need?
Industrial Designers need technical skills such as sketching, 3d cad modeling, and prototyping, plus people skills like creativity and collaboration. They also use tools such as SolidWorks and Rhino.
Technical (hard) skills
- Sketching
- 3D CAD modeling
- Prototyping
- User research
- Materials and manufacturing
- Rendering
People (soft) skills
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Problem solving
- Communication
Tools, equipment and technology
- SolidWorks
- Rhino
- KeyShot
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- 3D printers
- Model shop tools
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how industrial designers put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Sketching” and “3D CAD modeling.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “creativity,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as SolidWorks certification near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our industrial designer glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Industrial Designer training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.