What you do with your degree and your knowledge depends on your areas of interest and your design specialty. You may either be employed by a firm specializing in interior design or architecture, by a retail store as their in house designer, or you could work for the design division of a multinational corporation or for other institutions that focus on design. You may also opt to be self employed and start your own design business.

With interior design, the possibilities for work are virtually endless. As an interior designer, you can exercise your creativity on different work sites, ranging from residential sites to commercial, including numerous renovations and places where you need to work from scratch. Here are some typical project types and sites where an expertise at interior design would be of great use:

-    Planning, designing and decorating for government offices and facilities, including locations such as airports and train stations
-    Museum and theater design or renovation, for designers with a degree from a theatre set design school.
-    Design planning for hospitals, including designing and decorating doctor’s clinics and offices.
-    Making the design or doing the renovations for hotels, restaurants and resorts.
-    Designing and decorating for individuals, working on their houses, apartments or condominium units.

Each individual site is unique, has its own feel, dimensions, design potential and limitations, therefore, all these work sites will require a different and unique approach in design. Interior designers have to plan, create and develop the right kind of environment appropriate for the site, allowing the interior of the structure to exude an ambiance and an atmosphere that is well suited to the people who work and frequent these places.

There are a lot of disciplines related to interior design. Designers with a degree in interior design can branch out into any of these areas. You have several choices. As an interior designer, you can work on set designs for stage and screen productions, including lighting design. Interior designers can also help develop products and design furniture.  Designers also have the choice of going down the academic route and teach interior design. Computer rendering and illustration is also another choice, same with facilities management, as well as working on preservation of historic sites. However, most interior design graduates go into the most obvious field related to their degree – interior design.

The interior design field is expected to grow and prosper in the next few years. Competition among designers will be intense, with several work opportunities up for grabs. However, despite the overwhelming demand for interior designers, a bachelor’s degree, business smarts, lots of practical experience and an exceptional level of creativity are needed to succeed in this discipline.