Top 12 Structural Designer Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today's competitive job market, standing out as a structural designer means pairing sharp technical know-how with practical, collaborative habits. The following guide spotlights twelve skills worth elevating on your resume, each one pulling weight on real projects and helping you move from concept to constructed reality with fewer snags.
Structural Designer Skills
1. AutoCAD
AutoCAD is CAD software for crafting precise 2D and 3D drawings of structural systems. Clean linework, disciplined layers, and robust blocks keep designs tidy, editable, and ready for coordination.
Why It's Important
For structural designers, AutoCAD anchors drafting and detailing. It speeds edits, supports standards, and produces drawings that contractors actually trust—accurate, legible, and consistent.
How to Improve AutoCAD Skills
Push beyond basics and tighten your workflow:
Master advanced tools: Dynamic Blocks, Fields, and Sheet Sets cut repetition and enforce consistency across details and plans.
Tune your workspace: Customize tool palettes, ribbons, and aliases so frequent commands are a flick away.
Learn from experts: Structured courses (e.g., professional training or platform-based learning) sharpen technique fast.
Draw efficiently: Use xrefs, disciplined layer standards, named views, and reusable blocks. Keep files lean and navigable.
Stay current: New releases often boost performance and annotation workflows; upgrade with intention and read the release notes.
Join communities: Autodesk forums and user groups (including r/AutoCAD) offer tips, scripts, and troubleshooting wisdom.
Iteration and repetition win. Build a standards toolkit and refine it with every job.
How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume
2. Revit
Revit is BIM software that merges modeling, documentation, and coordination. For structures, it brings geometry, loads, and details into a single living model.
Why It's Important
You get coordinated drawings, fewer clashes, smoother revisions, and a model that supports analysis, shop drawings, and quantification. One source of truth across teams.
How to Improve Revit Skills
Learn shortcuts: Speed matters. Customize key bindings for placement, alignment, and navigation.
Build smarter families: Parametric, well-constructed families reduce rework and keep schedules reliable.
Use Dynamo: Automate repetitive tasks, drive parametric patterns, and check model health programmatically.
Optimize models: Purge, audit, manage links, and standardize view templates. Keep performance snappy.
Keep up with features: Track new releases and industry sessions; small upgrades often unlock big time savings.
How to Display Revit Skills on Your Resume
3. SAP2000
SAP2000 is a structural analysis and design platform used for buildings, bridges, and specialized structures. Linear and nonlinear analyses, multiple materials, and code-based design live under one roof.
Why It's Important
It blends robust analysis with a relatively intuitive interface, which means reliable results without getting lost in menus. Great for quick studies and deep dives alike.
How to Improve SAP2000 Skills
Start with fundamentals: Study modeling assumptions, load paths, and boundary conditions. The best results come from sound inputs.
Learn by doing: Rebuild real projects. Vary supports, load combinations, and element types to see how responses shift.
Use the API: Automate repetitive tasks and create custom checks with the SAP2000 API.
Check and calibrate: Validate models with hand calcs and simplified benchmarks.
Stay updated: New versions refine solvers, code checks, and workflows—worth adopting.
Engage peers: Professional forums and user groups are gold mines for troubleshooting and tactics.
How to Display SAP2000 Skills on Your Resume
4. STAAD.Pro
STAAD.Pro handles analysis and design for steel, concrete, timber, aluminum, and cold-formed sections. It scales from simple frames to sprawling industrial sites.
Why It's Important
Global codes, flexible modeling, and strong design modules support a wide project range. Safety, speed, and compliance in one toolset.
How to Improve STAAD.Pro Skills
Reinforce theory: Structural dynamics, stability, and material behavior prime you for better modeling decisions.
Use official resources: Work through product manuals and tutorials—small features often solve big pain points.
Practice real scenarios: Connections, load histories, staged construction—simulate what actually happens on site.
Join communities: Bentley user forums and local groups surface tips, macros, and workflows.
Track releases: Pay attention to solver tweaks and code updates; they can change outcomes.
Attend trainings: Webinars and workshops accelerate perspective on advanced modules.
Consider certification: Validates skills and often exposes underused features.
How to Display STAAD.Pro Skills on Your Resume
5. Rhino
Rhino (Rhinoceros 3D) excels at precise freeform modeling of NURBS curves, surfaces, and solids. It thrives when geometry gets tricky—shells, complex joints, unusual envelopes.
*NURBS: Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines, a mathematical model for generating and representing curves and surfaces.
Why It's Important
Parametric workflows and clean interoperability make Rhino a bridge between concept and analysis. Rapid iterations, accurate geometry, fewer surprises downstream.
How to Improve Rhino Skills
Nail the basics: Snaps, transforms, construction planes, and precision input keep models exact.
Adopt Grasshopper: Visual programming for parametric design, structural patterns, and optimization.
Lean on structural plugins: Tools like Karamba3D help test and tune structural behavior early.
Integrate with BIM: Use BIM-friendly objects and exports (e.g., IFC) for smoother handoffs.
Join the conversation: Rhino and Grasshopper forums are packed with scripts, definitions, and clever workarounds.
Keep learning: Advanced courses and studio-style tutorials sharpen both speed and judgment.
How to Display Rhino Skills on Your Resume
6. Tekla Structures
Tekla Structures is a detailed BIM platform built for constructible, fabrication-ready models—steel, concrete, and mixed systems with tight tolerances.
Why It's Important
Fabricators, erectors, and designers speak the same language when models are shop-grade. Fewer RFIs, cleaner assemblies, better coordination.
How to Improve Tekla Structures Skills
Start with core training: Work through official learning paths—parts, assemblies, drawings, and numbering.
Update regularly: New versions often improve performance, detailing, and interoperability.
Customize your environment: Tailor roles, ribbons, and templates to your discipline and standards.
Leverage Tekla Warehouse: Extensions and components can automate modeling and QC tasks.
Use the forums: The Tekla user community is active and generous with tips and macros.
Model hard things: Complex connections, rebar in congested zones—practice what breaks lesser tools.
Seek review: Peer checks expose modeling blind spots and drawing clarity issues.
Take advanced classes: Dive into custom components, templates, and drawing automation.
How to Display Tekla Structures Skills on Your Resume
7. BIM 360
BIM 360 (now part of Autodesk Construction Cloud alongside Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro and Autodesk Docs) is a cloud platform for model coordination, document control, and design collaboration.
Why It's Important
Shared data environments shrink miscommunication. Real-time model access and controlled sharing keep disciplines aligned and rework at bay.
How to Improve BIM 360 Skills
Use Revit Cloud Worksharing: Coordinate models with BIM Collaborate Pro to manage changes and reduce conflicts.
Lean on Design Collaboration: Package, share, and consume design sets with clear change tracking.
Run Model Coordination: Automate clash checks and prioritize issues by location, system, and severity.
Structure Docs well: Enforce folder permissions, naming standards, and review workflows.
Automate with APIs: Consider Autodesk Platform Services (formerly Forge) to script approvals, exports, or reports.
Stay engaged: User groups and AU sessions surface practical, field-tested practices.
How to Display BIM 360 Skills on Your Resume
8. ANSYS
Ansys provides advanced simulation tools for structural behavior—static, dynamic, nonlinear, thermal-structural, and more. When hand calcs and simple models aren’t enough, it steps in.
Why It's Important
It predicts performance under real-world conditions, trimming prototypes and de-risking design decisions. Stronger, lighter, more resilient structures come out the other end.
How to Improve ANSYS Skills
Solidify fundamentals: FEA theory, material models, boundary conditions—precision here pays off later.
Use templates wisely: Start from proven setups for contact, buckling, or modal studies to save time.
Expand materials: Explore nonlinear, temperature-dependent, and fatigue data with Ansys Granta.
Master meshing: Element choice, refinement zones, and quality metrics drive accuracy and runtime.
Automate with APDL or Python: Script repetitive workflows and parametric studies.
Leverage HPC: Scale complex runs across cores or clusters to hit deadlines.
Join forums: Community examples and troubleshooting threads speed up learning curves.
Keep learning: Webinars, release notes, and training courses reveal new solvers and tricks.
How to Display ANSYS Skills on Your Resume
9. Civil 3D
Civil 3D supports BIM workflows for civil infrastructure—roads, corridors, grading, pipes, and bridges. Structural designers use it to align with site realities and adjacent works.
Why It's Important
Topography, alignments, and utilities aren’t afterthoughts. Civil 3D brings them into view so structures fit, drain, and build without surprises.
How to Improve Civil 3D Skills
Walk the tutorials: Learn surfaces, corridors, pipe networks, and data shortcuts with official guides.
Customize styles: Labels, object styles, and templates keep drawings clean and consistent.
Use Subassembly Composer: Build reusable, parametric parts for custom roadway or structural sections.
Collaborate in the cloud: Pair with Autodesk Docs/BIM Collaborate Pro for shared models and controlled reviews.
Add extensions: The Autodesk App Store hosts tools that streamline drafting, QC, and data exchange.
Join user forums: Community tips often solve niche but costly snags.
Take focused courses: Training that targets structural–civil interfaces pays off quickly.
Practice with sample datasets: Build fluency on safe sandboxes before production files.
Share feedback: Suggest features through official channels to shape future releases.
How to Display Civil 3D Skills on Your Resume
10. MicroStation
MicroStation is Bentley’s CAD platform for 2D/3D modeling and documentation across infrastructure. It’s sturdy, precise, and battle-tested on big civil and building programs.
Why It's Important
It supports rigorous drafting and model authoring, integrates with Bentley’s structural tools, and fits neatly into multi-discipline, multi-model environments.
How to Improve MicroStation Skills
Focus on key features: Parametric modeling, constraints, references, and sheet models form the backbone.
Use libraries and templates: Seed files, cells, and standards slash setup time.
Connect analysis tools: Coordinate with STAAD or RAM for a smoother model-to-design loop.
Automate: MDL or VBA can remove hours of repetitive clicking.
Stay current: Webinars and release updates reveal performance boosts and new tools.
Learn shortcuts: Key-ins and AccuDraw/AccuSnap mastery dramatically speeds production.
Seek custom solutions: If something’s missing, plugins or scripts can fill the gap.
How to Display MicroStation Skills on Your Resume
11. ETABS
ETABS is built for building structures—frames, walls, slabs, and cores—with integrated modeling, analysis, and design for multi-story systems.
Why It's Important
Its building-centric tools make lateral systems, seismic checks, and code-based design more direct, from schematic massing to detailed reinforcement.
How to Improve ETABS Skills
Own the basics: Grids, story data, diaphragms, and section properties—get these right first.
Deepen structural understanding: Load paths, stiffness distribution, and regularity drive good models.
Tackle advanced topics: Modal and response spectrum analysis, P-Delta, staged construction, and concrete wall design.
Use the knowledge base: Official docs and example files answer most what-if questions.
Practice relentlessly: Recreate known buildings and compare results to references.
Track updates: Solver improvements and new code modules can change preferred workflows.
Attend workshops: Live sessions surface pitfalls and best practices you won’t find in manuals.
Consider certification or courses: Formal training cements habits and expands your toolkit.
How to Display ETABS Skills on Your Resume
12. SketchUp
SketchUp offers fast, intuitive 3D modeling for concept-through-detail communication. It’s quick to learn and great for options studies and clear visual storytelling.
Why It's Important
Structural assemblies, connections, and sequences can be explained visually in minutes. That clarity saves meetings, not just minutes.
How to Improve SketchUp Skills
Use extensions: Explore tools tailored to framing, connections, and detailing (e.g., Medeek Structural and similar plugins).
Learn shortcuts: Speed through selection, inference locking, and navigation without breaking flow.
Organize ruthlessly: Tags (layers), components, groups, and scenes keep models navigable and presentable.
Model with real dimensions: Set units and precision, and verify with Tape Measure to avoid scale drift.
Plan analysis handoffs: Export to IFC or other exchange formats for use in downstream structural analysis tools.
How to Display SketchUp Skills on Your Resume
