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Structural designer vs designer

The differences between structural designers and designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a structural designer, becoming a designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a designer has an average salary of $66,347, which is higher than the $63,273 average annual salary of a structural designer.

The top three skills for a structural designer include revit, structural design and BIM. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.

Structural designer vs designer overview

Structural DesignerDesigner
Yearly salary$63,273$66,347
Hourly rate$30.42$31.90
Growth rate7%3%
Number of jobs51,43252,433
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 46%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age4138
Years of experience612

What does a structural designer do?

A Structural Designer designs, develops, and supervises the construction of new buildings and bridges, or extensions to existing properties or other structures. They review and update construction drawings as well as communicate project problems and flaws to managers.

What does a designer do?

A designer is someone who creates a master plan of the look or workings of something before it will be made. It could be tangible or intangible objects, products, procedures, laws, events, games, graphics, services, and even experiences. Designers are creative thinkers with a great eye to configure the skeletal and structural properties of the targeted output. They work in several fields, such as fashion, architecture, web graphics, and user experience. In spite of the variety of professionals in the design industry, all of them are artistic, passionate, inspiring, and emotionally connected to their projects and brands.

Structural designer vs designer salary

Structural designers and designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Structural DesignerDesigner
Average salary$63,273$66,347
Salary rangeBetween $47,000 And $84,000Between $45,000 And $97,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASeattle, WA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaWashington
Best paying companyTeslaMeta
Best paying industryConstructionTechnology

Differences between structural designer and designer education

There are a few differences between a structural designer and a designer in terms of educational background:

Structural DesignerDesigner
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 46%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common majorDrafting And DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeCarnegie Mellon UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania

Structural designer vs designer demographics

Here are the differences between structural designers' and designers' demographics:

Structural DesignerDesigner
Average age4138
Gender ratioMale, 87.4% Female, 12.6%Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.0% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 12.8% White, 66.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage5%13%

Differences between structural designer and designer duties and responsibilities

Structural designer example responsibilities.

  • Field route pipe systems; manage line and pipe support list; ISO s for fabrication / installation.
  • Assure compliance with refinery and OSHA safety requirements in selecting, locating and hookup of equipment.
  • Develop record system, QA & QC policies and procedures, peer review system to reduce installation errors.
  • Provide general arrangement, detail, and design drawings of ladders, platforms, and frame structure for the following projects.
  • Prepare AutoCAD engineering drawings of structural components for natural gas turbine compressor stations.
  • Programme PLC, VFD and SCADA equipment.
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Designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead & design all creative content stemming from apparel design to web identity.
  • Manage various PCB designs utilizing state of the art DFM techniques and comply with company standards.
  • Utilize CSS, DHTML, HTML, and JavaScript for cross browser, cross platform compatibility and consistency.
  • Develop different kinds of functions globally, locally for the development of forms using JavaScript, CSS.
  • Transform customer specifications into usable SolidWorks 3D models and assemblies from which all manufacturing are derived.
  • Process ECR's and ECO's using Windchill.
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Structural designer vs designer skills

Common structural designer skills
  • Revit, 14%
  • Structural Design, 10%
  • BIM, 5%
  • Navisworks, 5%
  • Ladders, 4%
  • Engineering Design, 4%
Common designer skills
  • Sketch, 10%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Graphic Design, 6%
  • CSS, 5%
  • HTML, 4%
  • PowerPoint, 4%

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