Tips for Landing a Job in Interior and Exterior Design

If you want to land a job in interior or exterior design, the biggest thing is to show that you can do more than make things look good.

A few tips from the practical side:

Build a portfolio that shows your thinking, not just pretty finished photos. Employers want to see layouts, material choices, before-and-after thinking, and how you solved a real design problem—not just style. ASID notes that portfolios are now judged on process, technical fluency, and professionalism, not just aesthetics.

Get comfortable with the software employers actually expect. For interior work, that usually means tools like AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, and Adobe programs. For exterior/landscape-related roles, AutoCAD, Adobe, and 3-D modeling tools such as SketchUp or Rhino show up often in training and internship requirements.

Learn the technical side, not just the visual side. For interiors, that means space planning, code awareness, materials, and functionality. CIDQ specifically ties professional interior design competency to health, safety, and welfare—not just decoration.

If you’re leaning interior, know that credentials can matter. The NCIDQ is the recognized industry credential and is required for licensure in many regulated jurisdictions across North America, so it can make you more competitive as you grow.

For exterior design, show that you understand real-world site conditions. ASLA emphasizes that landscape design work blends creativity with science, engineering, and analysis, so employers want to see that you can think about drainage, usability, environment, and how people actually move through a space.

Start where you can get real experience. Even a junior role, internship, showroom job, design assistant role, or drafting support position can help. A strong portfolio plus hands-on project experience usually opens more doors than waiting until everything feels perfect.

In plain terms: portfolio first, software second, technical credibility always. That combination gets attention faster than style alone.

Try looking here:
https://thepros.co/search/jobs?keyword=interior+design+jobs