An Interior Designer is a professional who plans and designs indoor spaces. They execute this by meeting with clients and agreeing on budgets and other important project details. They then research, plan, design, and coordinate the project to meet the client's expectations. Project requirements are mostly about structural alterations, picking out decorative items like colors and lighting, all to make the space visually pleasing.
Interior designers usually work in architectural firms and interior design firms. Some work as independent contractors, whereby they have their businesses. You may decide to design specific premises such as private residences, hospitals, restaurants, banks, or serve all sectors. All in all, you must be highly creative to be a successful interior designer.
The working hours for interior designers depend on where they work. Those in formal employment usually work, on average, 40 hours a week, 9 to 5. Those running their businesses hardly have regular working schedules, and they may need to work extra hours and weekends to meet client needs.
Interior Designer/Project Manager Overview
Working as an Interior Designer/Project Manager
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an interior designer/project manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $32.49 an hour? That's $67,581 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 3,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Interior Designer/Project Manager Do
There are certain skills that many interior designer/project managers 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 detail oriented, problem-solving skills and visualization.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an interior designer/project manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.0% of interior designer/project managers included revit, while 9.7% of resumes included design projects, and 7.3% of resumes included building codes. 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 interior designer/project manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most interior designer/project managers actually find jobs in the professional and manufacturing industries.
How To Become an Interior Designer/Project Manager
If you're interested in becoming an interior designer/project manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.1% of interior designer/project managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.2% of interior designer/project managers have master's degrees. Even though most interior designer/project managers 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 interior designer/project manager. When we researched the most common majors for an interior designer/project manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on interior designer/project manager resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an interior designer/project manager. In fact, many interior designer/project manager jobs require experience in a role such as interior designer. Meanwhile, many interior designer/project managers also have previous career experience in roles such as interior design internship or project manager.
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Interior Designer/Project Manager Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an interior designer/project manager can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as project manager, progress to a title such as director of construction and then eventually end up with the title director of construction.
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Average Salary for an Interior Designer/Project Manager
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Interior Talent Senior Interior Designer/Project Manager Senior Interior Designer/Project Manager | Interior Talent Interior Talent | 09/17/2020 09/17/2020 | $70,00009/17/2020 $70,000 |
Interior Talent Senior Interior Designer/Project Manager Senior Interior Designer/Project Manager | Interior Talent Interior Talent | 08/22/2020 08/22/2020 | $70,00008/22/2020 $70,000 |
Interior Talent Senior Interior Designer/Project Manager Senior Interior Designer/Project Manager | Interior Talent Interior Talent | 07/20/2020 07/20/2020 | $70,00007/20/2020 $70,000 |
Discovery Senior Living Interior Design Project Manager Interior Design Project Manager | Discovery Senior Living Discovery Senior Living | 07/07/2020 07/07/2020 | $50,00007/07/2020 $50,000 |
Interior Talent Interior Designer/Project Manager Interior Designer/Project Manager | Interior Talent Interior Talent | 01/27/2020 01/27/2020 | $80,00001/27/2020 $80,000 |
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Top Colleges for Interior Designer/Project Managers
1. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
2. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Public
3. University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD • Public
4. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
5. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
6. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
7. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
8. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
9. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
10. Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX • Public
Top Skills For an Interior Designer/Project Manager
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, 15.0% of interior designer/project managers listed revit on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and problem-solving skills are important as well.
- Revit, 15.0%
- Design Projects, 9.7%
- Building Codes, 7.3%
- Construction Documents, 7.3%
- Contract Documents, 6.5%
- Other Skills, 54.2% See All Interior Designer/Project Manager Skills
Best States For an Interior Designer/Project Manager
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an interior designer/project manager. The best states for people in this position are Wyoming, North Dakota, Washington, and Oregon. Interior designer/project managers make the most in Wyoming with an average salary of $84,993. Whereas in North Dakota and Washington, they would average $82,579 and $77,352, respectively. While interior designer/project managers would only make an average of $76,455 in Oregon, 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. Oregon
$76,456
Avg. Salary
2. Iowa
$75,816
Avg. Salary
3. North Dakota
$82,579
Avg. Salary
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