Top 12 Electrical Designer Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive job market, standing out as an electrical designer means showing a sharp mix of technical rigor and inventive problem-solving. The right skills on your resume don’t just look tidy—they signal you can wrangle complex projects, coordinate across disciplines, and push designs from idea to build with less friction.

Electrical Designer Skills

1. AutoCAD
2. Revit
3. SolidWorks
4. MATLAB
5. PSpice
6. ETAP
7. PLC Programming
8. Eagle PCB
9. Simulink
10. LabVIEW
11. SKM Power*Tools
12. Multisim

1. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is a CAD workhorse used to draft precise 2D and 3D electrical schematics, layouts, and documentation. It keeps drawings consistent and build-ready.

Why It's Important

AutoCAD lets electrical designers create, revise, and document schematics and layouts with precision, speeding coordination and helping designs meet codes and standards without guesswork.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

Trim wasted motion, tighten your toolkit, and let the software work for you:

1. Customize the workspace: Tool palettes, ribbons, and right-click menus tuned for electrical tasks save clicks and reduce hunting.

2. Master shortcuts and aliases: Keep a cheat sheet nearby; build muscle memory for frequent commands.

3. Use the AutoCAD Electrical toolset: Symbols, wire numbering, reports, and PLC I/O features crush repetitive work.

4. Standardize templates: Title blocks, layers, plot styles, and annotation scales—lock them down so every sheet looks identical.

5. Blocks and data: Dynamic blocks, attributes, and data extraction simplify BOMs and panel schedules.

6. Stay current: New releases bring stability, DWG performance gains, and small features that add up.

Small refinements cascade into faster deliverables and fewer redlines.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume

2. Revit

Revit is BIM software for modeling, coordinating, and documenting electrical systems in 3D, keeping design data synchronized across trades.

Why It's Important

Revit centralizes design intent. Electrical devices, circuits, loads, and schedules remain coordinated with architecture and structure, reducing clashes and change-order churn.

How to Improve Revit Skills

Make the model smarter, not heavier:

1. Use discipline-ready templates: View templates, phases, filters, and schedules tailored for electrical design keep documentation consistent.

2. Parameter hygiene: Shared parameters, proper families, and consistent naming feed reliable panel schedules and load calcs.

3. Automate with Dynamo: Script repetitive tasks—device placement, tagging, wire lengths—and cut drudgery.

4. Coordinate in the cloud: Use Autodesk Construction Cloud/BIM 360 workflows for model sharing, issues, and review—less email ping-pong.

5. Family strategy: Lightweight, well-parameterized families prevent bloated files and slow views.

6. QA views and clash checks: Working views for checks (clearances, conduit zones) catch problems before they multiply.

Clean data models translate to clean drawings—and fewer field surprises.

How to Display Revit Skills on Your Resume

3. SolidWorks

SolidWorks creates detailed 3D models and assemblies; with SolidWorks Electrical, you can connect schematics to harnesses and route data into mechanical space.

Why It's Important

Electrical and mechanical live together. SolidWorks helps you verify fit, clearances, and interfaces, so harnesses route cleanly and panels actually close.

How to Improve SolidWorks Skills

Tighten the loop between schematic intent and 3D reality:

1. Adopt SolidWorks Electrical: Sync symbols, wire lists, and connection data into the 3D assembly for accurate routing.

2. Customize command layouts: Put routing, mate, and measure tools within easy reach; build task-specific tabs.

3. Use certified content: Vendor models from trusted libraries reduce rework and part mismatches.

4. Performance tuning: Lightweight components, simplified configurations, and correct image quality settings keep big assemblies responsive.

5. Design rules and checks: Clearance, bend radius, and harness slack rules prevent painful late-stage reroutes.

When ECAD and MCAD are aligned, integration issues evaporate.

How to Display SolidWorks Skills on Your Resume

4. MATLAB

MATLAB is a numerical computing environment for algorithms, data analysis, and modeling—often paired with toolboxes relevant to electrical engineering.

Why It's Important

It lets designers build, test, and refine control logic, signal processing, and power algorithms quickly, then verify with simulation before committing to hardware.

How to Improve MATLAB Skills

Sharper math, cleaner code, stronger models:

1. Nail the fundamentals: Vectorization, matrix operations, and plotting—speed and clarity flow from these basics.

2. Use the right toolboxes: Signal Processing, Control System, Optimization, and Power Systems toolboxes shrink development time.

3. Script hygiene: Functions over scripts, preallocation, unit tests, and meaningful variable names pay dividends.

4. Profiling and performance: Profile code, eliminate bottlenecks, and lean on built-ins.

5. Model-in-the-loop workflows: Pair with Simulink to validate algorithms under realistic scenarios.

Less spreadsheet chaos. More reproducible results.

How to Display MATLAB Skills on Your Resume

5. PSpice

PSpice simulates analog and mixed-signal circuits, predicting behavior long before you etch copper or order a prototype.

Why It's Important

Accurate simulation spots stability issues, tolerance drift, and thermal stress early, reducing respins and lab time.

How to Improve PSpice Skills

Build trustworthy sims that converge and tell the truth:

1. Curate libraries: Verified vendor models and a clean, versioned library reduce nasty surprises.

2. Parameter sweeps: Explore corners quickly—component tolerances, source variation, and temperature spans.

3. Monte Carlo and worst-case: Quantify yield, not just nominal success.

4. Convergence tactics: Reasonable timestep, initial conditions, and model simplifications tame stubborn circuits.

5. Advanced analyses: Noise, stability (AC), stress, and thermal checks reveal hidden gremlins.

Treat the simulator like a lab: set up experiments, document, repeat.

How to Display PSpice Skills on Your Resume

6. ETAP

ETAP models, simulates, and analyzes electrical power systems—from load flow to arc flash—covering design through operations.

Why It's Important

It supports safe, reliable, code-compliant power system design and helps validate protection, capacity, and system response under fault or contingency.

How to Improve ETAP Skills

From one-line to operations, tighten every step:

1. Solid data inputs: Verified utility data, cable specs, transformer details, and protective device curves are non-negotiable.

2. Module depth: Go beyond load flow—short circuit, coordination, motor starting, arc flash, and transient stability when needed.

3. Protective device coordination: Time-current curves that are selective and safe; document assumptions and margins.

4. Scenario and contingency cases: N-1, emergency loading, generator dispatch—model reality, not just ideal.

5. Audit trails: Version control models and keep calculation notes attached to the project.

Well-built studies make approvals smoother and maintenance safer.

How to Display ETAP Skills on Your Resume

7. PLC Programming

PLC programming creates the logic that runs machines and processes using IEC 61131-3 languages like ladder, function block, structured text, and more.

Why It's Important

Automation demands reliability. Good PLC code delivers safe, deterministic control with clear diagnostics and sane maintenance pathways.

How to Improve PLC Programming Skills

Make code readable, testable, and robust:

1. Architecture first: State machines, modular function blocks, and clear naming keep systems understandable.

2. Standards and safety: Follow IEC 61131-3 conventions and applicable safety norms (e.g., IEC 61508/ISO 13849 where relevant).

3. Simulation and testing: Use vendor simulators or digital twins to validate logic before commissioning.

4. Diagnostics baked in: Alarms, fault codes, and timestamped events speed troubleshooting.

5. Change control: Version control projects, annotate changes, and keep a rollback plan.

6. HMI cohesion: Consistent tags and faceplates link PLC logic to clean operator interfaces.

Great PLC programs are calm under pressure and easy to maintain at 2 a.m.

How to Display PLC Programming Skills on Your Resume

8. Eagle PCB

EAGLE has long been used for schematic capture and PCB layout. Today, its capabilities are folded into Fusion 360 Electronics, which adds 3D context, MCAD collaboration, and manufacturing handoff.

Why It's Important

From symbols to Gerbers, a streamlined PCB flow reduces errors and accelerates fabrication. With Fusion integration, 2D meets 3D for tighter packaging decisions.

How to Improve Eagle PCB Skills

Design for manufacturability and signal integrity from the start:

1. Library governance: Centralized, verified footprints and symbols with parameter data avoid rework.

2. Design rules early: Set DRC based on your board house’s capabilities—clearances, annular rings, stackup, and impedance.

3. Placement before routing: Orient components for clean current paths, short sensitive loops, and thermal relief.

4. Routing discipline: Differential pair constraints, return paths, length tuning, and via strategy keep signals honest.

5. 3D checks: Verify keepouts, connector access, and enclosure fit in Fusion 360.

6. Outputs that sing: CAM jobs, fab notes, stackup docs, and assembly drawings free of ambiguity.

Good boards route themselves; great boards manufacture without a phone call.

How to Display Eagle PCB Skills on Your Resume

9. Simulink

Simulink is a graphical environment for modeling and simulating dynamic systems—controls, power electronics, and more—without immediate hardware.

Why It's Important

It lets you iterate fast, test edge cases safely, and prove robustness before silicon or steel enters the chat.

How to Improve Simulink Skills

Keep models readable, fast, and truthful:

1. Model architecture: Use subsystems, data dictionaries, and buses to tame complexity.

2. Solver savvy: Pick solvers and steps suited to your system (discrete for control, stiff solvers for power electronics).

3. Code generation paths: Prepare for HIL or embedded targets with fixed-step settings and supported blocks.

4. Verification: Harness test benches, assertions, and coverage to lock behavior.

5. Co-simulation: Pair with MATLAB scripts for parameter sweeps and automated runs.

A disciplined model is a living specification.

How to Display Simulink Skills on Your Resume

10. LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a visual programming platform for data acquisition, test, control, and measurement—ideal for hardware-in-the-loop and rapid lab builds.

Why It's Important

Fast instrument integration, rich UIs, and reliable data handling turn messy benches into repeatable test systems.

How to Improve LabVIEW Skills

Build durable, scalable applications—not spaghetti:

1. Design patterns: Queued message handlers, state machines, and producer–consumer loops keep logic clean.

2. Project structure: Clear foldering, libraries, and strict type defs reduce breakage on edits.

3. DAQ and drivers: Configure timing, buffering, and triggering correctly to avoid silent data loss.

4. Error handling and logging: Centralized error wires and logs make field issues traceable.

5. Automated tests: Unit tests and build specs keep deployments predictable.

Great LabVIEW code is quiet, observable, and boring—in the best way.

How to Display LabVIEW Skills on Your Resume

11. SKM Power*Tools

SKM Power*Tools (PTW) analyzes power systems: load flow, short circuit, coordination, arc flash, and more—end to end.

Why It's Important

It provides the quantitative backbone for safe, efficient power distribution designs and compliance documentation.

How to Improve SKM Power*Tools Skills

Make studies defensible and actionable:

1. Accurate one-line: Maintain device data, cable lengths, impedances, and transformer connections meticulously.

2. Coordination studies: Overlay TCCs, check selectivity, and annotate protection philosophy.

3. Arc flash rigor: Up-to-date working distances, enclosure types, and PPE categories—label what the techs actually see.

4. Scenario management: Normal, maintenance, and backup configurations—no single-case wishful thinking.

5. Clear reporting: Summaries for decision-makers, appendices for engineers; both matter.

Well-documented studies become institutional knowledge, not one-off files.

How to Display SKM Power*Tools Skills on Your Resume

12. Multisim

Multisim offers schematic capture and SPICE simulation for fast circuit prototyping and validation.

Why It's Important

It trims bench time by catching functional gaps and tolerance issues early, especially in analog and mixed-signal designs.

How to Improve Multisim Skills

Strive for simulations that mirror the real world:

1. Library accuracy: Use vendor-backed models or create validated custom components when stock ones miss the mark.

2. Measurement mindset: Oscilloscopes, Bode plotters, and distortion meters in-sim—treat them like real instruments.

3. Parametric studies: Sweep values and temperatures to reveal design margins and sensitivities.

4. PCB handoff: Align reference designators, net names, and simulation notes with downstream layout.

5. Iterate with intent: Document hypotheses and outcomes—avoid random knob-twiddling.

Sim first. Build second. Sleep better.

How to Display Multisim Skills on Your Resume