Careers > Interior Designers

Interior Designers

$61.59K Median Salary 7.8K Job Openings (Annual Projection) -0.1% Job Growth

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About This Career

Plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Design interior environments or create physical layouts that are practical, aesthetic, and conducive to the intended purposes. May specialize in a particular field, style, or phase of interior design.

Reported Job Titles

Decorating Consultant, Designer, Interior Design Consultant, Interior Design Coordinator, Interior Designer

Career data shown for:

Skills You'll Need

Click on skills to find related courses.

Abilities

Originality

Fluency of Ideas

Near Vision

Oral Comprehension

Oral Expression

Visualization

Written Comprehension

Speech Clarity

Deductive Reasoning

Problem Sensitivity

Written Expression

Speech Recognition

Visual Color Discrimination

Category Flexibility

Inductive Reasoning

Selective Attention

Far Vision

Information Ordering

Flexibility of Closure

Mathematical Reasoning

Knowledge

Design

Building and Construction

Customer and Personal Service

English Language

Administration and Management

Fine Arts

Sales and Marketing

Public Safety and Security

Computers and Electronics

Psychology

Mathematics

Administrative

Communications and Media

Engineering and Technology

Skills

Active Listening

Critical Thinking

Reading Comprehension

Speaking

Service Orientation

Social Perceptiveness

Writing

Complex Problem Solving

Coordination

Persuasion

Negotiation

Operations Analysis

Judgment and Decision Making

Active Learning

Monitoring

Time Management

Instructing

Mathematics

Technology Skills

Computer aided design CAD software

Presentation software

Graphics or photo imaging software

Electronic mail software

Video creation and editing software

Spreadsheet software

Document management software

Desktop publishing software

Office suite software

Word processing software

Internet browser software

Project management software

Tools

Scales

Triangles

Tape measures

Scanners

Tablet computers

Graphics or video accelerator cards

Notebook computers

Personal digital assistant PDAs or organizers

Digital cameras

Protractors

Digital camcorders or video cameras

Plotter printers

Desktop computers

Print servers

Personal computers

T squares

Abilities

Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.

Knowledge

Design: Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Building and Construction: Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
English Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Administration and Management: Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Fine Arts: Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Sales and Marketing: Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Public Safety and Security: Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Computers and Electronics: Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Psychology: Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Mathematics: Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Administrative: Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Communications and Media: Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Engineering and Technology: Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.

Skills

Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Writing: Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Persuasion: Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
Negotiation: Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
Operations Analysis: Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
Judgment and Decision Making: Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Active Learning: Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Time Management: Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Instructing: Teaching others how to do something.
Mathematics: Using mathematics to solve problems.

Technology Skills

Computer aided design CAD software: Autodesk AutoCAD; Autodesk Revit
Presentation software: Microsoft PowerPoint
Graphics or photo imaging software: SmugMug Flickr
Electronic mail software: IBM Notes; Microsoft Exchange; Microsoft Outlook
Video creation and editing software: YouTube
Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel
Document management software: Adobe Systems Adobe Acrobat; Filing system software; Records management software; Transcription system software
Desktop publishing software: Adobe Systems Adobe InDesign; Microsoft Publisher
Office suite software: Microsoft Office software
Word processing software: 3M Post-it App; Evernote; Google Docs; Microsoft Word
Internet browser software: Web browser software
Project management software: Mavenlink; Microsoft Project

Tools

Scales: Triangular scales
Triangles:
Tape measures: Diameter tape measures
Scanners: Data input scanners
Tablet computers:
Graphics or video accelerator cards: Computer aided design CAD multi-unit display graphics cards
Notebook computers: Laptop computers
Personal digital assistant PDAs or organizers: Personal digital assistants PDA
Digital cameras:
Protractors:
Digital camcorders or video cameras: Digital video cameras
Plotter printers: Plotters
Desktop computers:
Print servers:
Personal computers:
T squares:

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