As an interior designer, you transform even the drabbest of spaces into something magical. However, the rewarding nature of this career means having to work in a highly competitive industry.
This can make it impossible to stand out when applying for jobs. Never to fear—that’s where we come in! You do the interior designing, and we’ll help you write your resume.
Our five interior design resume samples are designed with you in mind to help you get inspired and create a resume that wows the hiring manager.
Whether you’re building your resume from scratch or updating an old one, you’re bound to find something in this guide to improve your interior design resume. Let’s get creative!
Why this resume works
- Interior design requires advanced knowledge and training, so your interior design resume needs to list academic qualifications and industry-specific certifications.
- Create a separate section for your certifications or licenses, and don’t forget to mention which organization issued your license.
- You may be tempted to put a boatload of skills in your resume’s skills section, but that’s actually a red flag for employers.
- Instead, list six to 10 relevant skills mentioned in the job description.
- Shoot for at least 60 percent technical skills (like CAD and sketching), but include some soft skills to show employers you’re good at the human side of things, too.
Why this resume works
- Employers want to see the magnitude of your achievements and responsibilities, but trying to sell your skills with words isn’t easy. Try adding numbers (aka metrics) to help!
- Square footage
- Sales targets or revenue
- Ratings or client satisfaction
- Numbers make your resume easier to read, and they’re a quick way to add credibility. So try adding these kind of numbers to your professional interior designer resume:
- No resume is ever going to be picture-perfect, but you want yours to be as close as possible!
- Grammar errors
- Typos/misspellings
- Missing information (especially contact information)
- Punctuation errors
- Before you submit your application, check your resume thoroughly for the following:
Why this resume works
- As an entry-level candidate, it’s likely your work experience isn’t interior-design related. That’s okay! Instead, focus your efforts on transferable skills.
- For example, with customer service or administration-related roles, it’s likely you learned skills like communication, organization, and inventory management, all useful skills for interior designers.
- If your entry-level interior design resume needs some more content, try adding a resume objective. This two-to-three-sentence statement sums up your skills and excitement for the job without taking up too much room.
- A word of caution: if you include an objective, it must be tailored to each job for which you apply. Include the name of the company, the position, and skills referenced in the job description.
- Objectives are optional, so if you’re spending too much time editing one, leave it out and focus on work experience or projects.
Why this resume works
- As a senior interior designer, your resume should focus on accomplishments, not job duties.
- Don’t just say what you did—explain how you did it and the results of your work so hiring managers can quantify your impact.
- For example, did you save the company money by monitoring the budget throughout the project? Did you win an award that resulted in more clients?
- Your senior interior design resume should be anything but boring, so use a resume template to add some artistic flair.
- You can also play with formatting options to include as much as possible while still keeping your resume readable and on one page
Why this resume works
- Interior design isn’t an individual effort, especially at the corporate level, so demonstrate your teamwork capabilities throughout your work experience.
- As we’ve mentioned before, explain how your work made a difference. Don’t just tell hiring managers you communicated with clients—explain how your negotiation abilities earned you five new clients in a year. You’ve got the skills, so show the results!
- If you’re not sure which technical skills to include on your corporate interior designer resume, start with the job description.
- Read and highlight the listed skills, then include a few of those keywords in the skills section of your resume.
- Just remember that you should tailor your skills section for each position. Although it takes time, it shows the company you’re paying attention, which gets you one step closer to an interview. Worth the effort in our book!
