Skills
Interior Designer Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in interior designers, and how to build and show them.
What skills do interior designers need?
Interior Designers need technical skills such as space planning, autocad and revit, and 3d rendering, plus people skills like creativity and communication. They also use tools such as AutoCAD and Revit.
Technical (hard) skills
- Space planning
- AutoCAD and Revit
- 3D rendering
- Building codes and ADA
- Materials and finishes
- Project management
People (soft) skills
- Creativity
- Communication
- Problem solving
- Attention to detail
Tools, equipment and technology
- AutoCAD
- Revit
- SketchUp
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Material samples
- Project management tools
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how interior 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, “Space planning” and “AutoCAD and Revit.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “creativity,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as NCIDQ Certification near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our interior 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 Interior 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.