Electrical designers design and develop power distribution diagrams for a project. Summarily, they create electrical designs and estimate the time, cost, and materials needed to execute the project. They earn an average salary of $65,000 per year or $31 per hour.
Electrical designers are professional designers of electrical systems. They apply the knowledge they have gathered over the years to prepare wiring diagrams and identify layouts or plans of the electrical system in a building or infrastructure that requires electricity. They are able to work effectively with their hands and have excellent technical, speaking, and mechanical skills.
Electrical designers usually hold a bachelor's or associate's degree in electrical engineering. They'll also opt to get a professional engineering license, if they choose to further their career prospects. To become an electrical designer takes time and the requirements vary by state. Generally, employers prefer to hire candidates with a journeyman electrician certificate and years of experience.
Electrical Designer Overview
Electrical Designer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an electrical designer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $32.91 an hour? That's $68,455 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 8,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Electrical Designer Do
There are certain skills that many electrical designers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed initiative, speaking skills and writing skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an electrical designer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.4% of electrical designers included revit, while 10.6% of resumes included electrical systems, and 9.9% of resumes included electrical design. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the electrical designer job title. But what industry to start with? Most electrical designers actually find jobs in the professional and manufacturing industries.
How To Become an Electrical Designer
If you're interested in becoming an electrical designer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 34.9% of electrical designers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.4% of electrical designers have master's degrees. Even though some electrical designers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an electrical designer. When we researched the most common majors for an electrical designer, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on electrical designer resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an electrical designer. In fact, many electrical designer jobs require experience in a role such as designer. Meanwhile, many electrical designers also have previous career experience in roles such as computer aided design designer or electrical drafter.
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Electrical Designer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of electrical engineer you might progress to a role such as project engineer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title project engineering manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Electrical Designer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Sargent & Lundy, L.L.C. Mid-Level Electrical Designer Mid-Level Electrical Designer | Sargent & Lundy, L.L.C. Sargent & Lundy, L.L.C. | 01/25/2021 01/25/2021 | $54,65901/25/2021 $54,659 |
Aerotek Electrical Designer Wire Harness Design Electrical Designer Wire Harness Design | Aerotek Aerotek | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $75,00001/23/2021 $75,000 |
University of Michigan Electrical/Electronic Designer/Drafter Electrical/Electronic Designer/Drafter | University of Michigan University of Michigan | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $65,00001/23/2021 $65,000 |
Selectek Electrical Designer Electrical Designer | Selectek Selectek | 01/06/2021 01/06/2021 | $50,08801/06/2021 $50,088 |
Morrison-Maierle Electrical Transmission & Distribution Design Electrical Transmission & Distribution Design | Morrison-Maierle Morrison-Maierle | 12/29/2020 12/29/2020 | $82,00012/29/2020 $82,000 |
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Electrical Designer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Electrical Designer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Electrical Designer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Electrical Designer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Electrical Designers
1. Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI • Public
2. LeTourneau University
Longview, TX • Private
3. Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY • Private
4. Wentworth Institute of Technology
Boston, MA • Private
5. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
6. New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM • Public
7. Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH • Public
8. South Dakota State University
Brookings, SD • Public
9. Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN • Public
10. University of Akron
Akron, OH • Public
Top Skills For an Electrical Designer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.4% of electrical designers listed revit on their resume, but soft skills such as initiative and speaking skills are important as well.
- Revit, 13.4%
- Electrical Systems, 10.6%
- Electrical Design, 9.9%
- Construction Documents, 6.8%
- Autocad, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 54.3% See All Electrical Designer Skills
Best States For an Electrical Designer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an electrical designer. The best states for people in this position are Washington, Massachusetts, California, and Alaska. Electrical designers make the most in Washington with an average salary of $86,620. Whereas in Massachusetts and California, they would average $82,852 and $77,479, respectively. While electrical designers would only make an average of $77,095 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$86,620
Avg. Salary
2. Massachusetts
$82,852
Avg. Salary
3. California
$77,479
Avg. Salary
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