Interior Design Resume Sample

Interior designers decorate spaces for clients based on their aesthetic preferences and budget requirements. If you’re an innovative thinker with an eye for design and decor trends, you’ll never be far from your next interior design job.

Showcase your talent for interior design with an outstanding resume, and prove you’re the perfect person to bring any space to life. Here are three tips for writing an interior design resume that’s sure to impress employers and clients alike:

1. Highlight your interior design resume skills

As an interior designer, you’ll spend much of your time discussing design requirements with clients, sourcing materials, and coordinating with contractors and other industry professionals. Having a combination of hard and soft skills is thus necessary to ensure everything runs smoothly.

List your hard skills in your resume’s skills section so employers immediately recognize you have the right qualifications to handle the work. You can then touch upon soft skills in your work experience section, where you highlight experiences working with other clientele.

Soft skills complement your technical skills and overall knowledge of design. Together with hard skills, they emphasize how you’re the right person for the job.

Here’s a list of key interior design skills:

• Active listening
• Prioritizing
• Organizational skills
• Project management skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Critical thinking
• Interpersonal skills
• Negotiation
• Adaptability
• Spatial awareness
• Property safety codes
• Budgeting and recordkeeping
• Reading technical plans and blueprints
• Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint)
• Graphics and photo imaging software (Adobe Systems Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop)
• Computer-aided design (CAD) software (Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD, Trimble SketchUp Pro, Vectorworks, and 3D Homeplanner)

2. Write a strong resume summary targeting your interior design experience

If you wish to leave a lasting impression on a potential employer, simply presenting your qualifications in your resume isn’t enough. You need to show employers what makes you special. This ideal can be at least partially achieved with a strong resume summary.

To write an effective resume summary as an interior designer, provide a concise overview of your relevant skills and experiences. Keep your phrasing clear and short — only include key information that aligns your talents with what the employer is specifically seeking in their next interior designer.

Here’s an example of an effective interior design resume summary:

Innovative interior designer with 10 years of experience in project management, space planning, and computer-aided design. Proven ability to transform client ideas into beautiful, functional design solutions. Skilled in color combinations, area improvement, and use of materials and illumination, driving innovative and personalized creations.

In the above example, the applicant hits upon their years of experience while also highlighting the hard skills required to complete a successful renovation. Then they emphasize their ability to deliver functional yet innovative designs — adhering to a client’s specifications and offering creative insight as needed.

A short but sweet resume summary is a proven way to attract more interest from people looking to hire you.

3. Tailor your interior design resume to the job post

Interior designers typically work for companies, real estate agents, or individual clients. Customize your resume based on the position you’re targeting, and focus on what the company or client values most in an interior designer.

Before you begin writing your resume, research the organization or client to gain a sense of what they’re looking for. Also, take a closer look at the job posting to uncover job-specific skills they want. This information can help you tailor your resume to the job and the prospective employer’s needs.

For example, if the job posting says they’re seeking an innovative thinker who can take creative lead over conceptualizing design plans, provide examples of how you’ve developed and executed new and interesting ideas in the past.

A resume written specifically for a single position is guaranteed to have greater traction than one sent out in bulk.