Top 12 Chemical Analyst Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today’s competitive job market, a well-crafted resume that spotlights sharp, job-ready skills makes a chemical analyst noticeable. Below, the essential 12. They signal real hands-on capability, sound judgment, and the kind of lab fluency employers lean on.
Chemical Analyst Skills
- Chromatography (HPLC)
- Spectroscopy (FTIR)
- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
- Titration Techniques
- Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
- Quality Control (QC)
- Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
- Electrochemistry (Potentiometry)
- Thermal Analysis (DSC)
- Rheometry
- Atomic Absorption (AAS)
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
1. Chromatography (HPLC)
High-Performance Liquid Chromatography separates, identifies, and quantifies components in a mixture by pushing sample through a packed column under pressure. Clean peaks, strong resolution, reproducible retention times—when tuned well, HPLC unpacks complex matrices with precision.
Why It's Important
It enables precise separation and quantification of compounds, supporting purity checks, stability studies, and method validation across pharmaceuticals, environmental testing, food chemistry, and more.
How to Improve Chromatography (HPLC) Skills
Dial in the details; performance follows.
Column selection: Match chemistry and particle size to the separation problem. Smaller particles and longer columns can boost resolution but increase backpressure—balance with instrument limits.
Mobile phase design: Optimize solvent strength, pH, buffers, and gradient profiles to sharpen selectivity and shorten runtime.
Flow rate: Find the sweet spot for your particle size; slower often improves resolution, but don’t overextend run times without gain.
Temperature control: Elevated temperatures can alter selectivity and lower solvent viscosity, tightening peaks and improving consistency.
Sample prep: Filter, dilute, and clean up matrices to protect columns and detectors. Bad prep = bad data.
Detector settings: Tune wavelengths, response times, and sampling rates to the analytes and peak widths you expect.
Maintenance: Replace seals, frits, and guard columns on schedule. Flush salts, degas solvents, and keep logs.
CDS use: Employ chromatography data systems for method control, system suitability, and robust data review. Tools like Chromeleon are common in regulated labs.
How to Display Chromatography (HPLC) Skills on Your Resume
2. Spectroscopy (FTIR)
FTIR measures infrared absorption to produce a spectral fingerprint of a sample. Functional groups sing out. Mixtures reveal themselves. Quick IDs and composition insights, often with little prep.
Why It's Important
Non-destructive, fast, and reliable for identifying materials, monitoring reactions, and verifying incoming goods and finished products.
How to Improve Spectroscopy (FTIR) Skills
Sample prep: Keep it clean and consistent. Use ATR for fast, minimal-prep scanning; KBr pellets or thin films when resolution demands it.
Calibration and care: Verify wavenumber accuracy and detector performance routinely. Track desiccant status; moisture is a silent saboteur.
Resolution vs. speed: Choose only as much resolution as needed; higher isn’t always better and can waste time.
Data processing: Apply baseline correction, smoothing, and peak deconvolution judiciously. Over-processing hides truth; under-processing hides signals.
Libraries and references: Maintain validated libraries relevant to your materials and matrices. Curate, don’t just collect.
QA/QC: Embed control checks (polystyrene films, known standards) into routine runs for confidence and traceability.
How to Display Spectroscopy (FTIR) Skills on Your Resume
3. Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
GC-MS pairs gas chromatographic separation with mass spectral detection. After GC resolves components, MS ionizes and fragments them, generating spectra that act like molecular fingerprints for confident ID and quantitation.
Why It's Important
High specificity, sensitivity, and broad applicability across volatiles, semi-volatiles, and derivatized analytes—core to method development, impurity profiling, and trace analysis.
How to Improve Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) Skills
Sample prep: Use SPME, QuEChERS, or liquid–liquid extraction to enrich analytes and cut matrix noise. Clean in, clean out.
Column and conditions: Pick stationary phases for your analyte class. Optimize carrier gas flow, injection mode (split/splitless/PTV), and temperature ramps for separation and peak shape.
Ionization and tuning: Match EI or CI to the task. Check tune, mass calibration, and detector gain routinely to protect sensitivity.
Data processing: Use robust software for deconvolution, spectral matching, and quantitation with internal or isotopically labeled standards. Platforms like MassHunter are widely used.
Maintenance: Leak-check, trim columns, clean ion sources, and replace liners often. Preventive care beats troubleshooting under deadline.
Ongoing learning: Track method updates and emerging contaminants; libraries and compliance needs evolve.
How to Display Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) Skills on Your Resume
4. Titration Techniques
Titration quantifies concentration by reacting an analyte with a standard solution to a clear endpoint. Acid–base, redox, complexometric, precipitation—simple, powerful, and foundational.
Why It's Important
It delivers precise concentration data for raw materials, in-process controls, and finished-product specs. Fast turnaround, dependable results.
How to Improve Titration Techniques Skills
Standardize titrants: Verify concentration against primary standards on a set cadence. Drift happens; catch it early.
Calibrate tools: Pipettes, burettes, and balances need regular checks. Small errors compound.
Use high-purity reagents: Analytical-grade materials reduce blanks and noise. Store properly to avoid degradation.
Technique discipline: Eliminate parallax, control addition rate near the endpoint, and mix consistently. Consistency is king.
Endpoint detection: Choose indicators wisely or use potentiometric/auto-titration for colored or turbid samples.
Temperature control: Run at consistent temperatures; equilibria and viscosity shift with heat.
Sample prep: Dissolve fully, filter if needed, and account for interferences. Replicate for confidence.
How to Display Titration Techniques Skills on Your Resume
5. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
PCR amplifies defined DNA targets through cycles of denaturation, annealing, and extension. From trace material, millions of copies. The backbone of many diagnostic, forensic, and research workflows.
Why It's Important
It enables highly specific detection and quantification of genetic material, informing contamination checks, identity testing, and molecular characterization.
How to Improve Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Skills
Primer design: Specificity first—18–24 bases, 40–60% GC, minimal secondary structures, and matched Tm.
Template quality: Use clean, intact nucleic acids. Remove inhibitors; verify concentration and purity (A260/A280).
Enzyme choice: Select high-fidelity polymerases for cloning and NGS; hot-start variants to reduce nonspecific products.
Annealing and cycling: Optimize with gradient PCR. Adjust times to amplicon length and GC content.
Mg2+ and additives: Titrate MgCl2; consider DMSO, betaine, or BSA for GC-rich or challenging templates.
Contamination control: Separate pre- and post-amplification areas, use filtered tips, and include no-template controls.
How to Display Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Skills on Your Resume
6. Quality Control (QC)
QC is the framework that keeps data trustworthy—procedures, checks, and documentation that prove results are accurate, precise, and compliant.
Why It's Important
Decisions ride on data. QC safeguards integrity, supports regulatory compliance, and reduces costly retests or recalls.
How to Improve Quality Control (QC) Skills
Standardize methods: Align with recognized standards (e.g., ISO, pharmacopeias) and lock procedures under change control.
Calibrate and maintain: Embed schedules for instruments and reference materials. Record everything.
Proficiency testing: Benchmark against peers to expose blind spots and bias.
Training: Keep analysts current on techniques, data integrity, and safety. Competency isn’t static.
QMS adoption: Implement a quality management system (such as ISO 9001 or ISO/IEC 17025) for risk-based processes and continuous improvement.
Controls and standards: Use certified reference materials and control charts to monitor performance over time.
Data review: Apply layered review and validation before release. Audit trails tell the story.
How to Display Quality Control (QC) Skills on Your Resume
7. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
LIMS software manages samples, workflows, instruments, results, and reports. It ties the lab together—traceability, scheduling, approvals, and compliance in one place.
Why It's Important
Better throughput, fewer transcription errors, ironclad data integrity, and clearer audit readiness. It’s operational glue.
How to Improve Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) Skills
Instrument integration: Connect chromatographs, spectrometers, balances—automate capture to reduce manual entry and errors.
Data integrity and security: Enforce roles, electronic signatures, audit trails, and validated workflows that meet data integrity expectations.
Customization and scale: Configure fields, templates, and workflows to match your lab’s reality. Plan for more samples, more users, more instruments.
Training and support: Provide role-based training and quick-reference guides. Fast support keeps the lab moving.
Compliance features: Build in GLP and ISO/IEC 17025 practices—version control, controlled methods, CAPA handling.
User experience: Streamline screens and tasks. Less clicking, fewer errors.
Mobile access: Enable secure mobile or tablet access for sampling, inventory checks, and approvals on the go. STARLIMS, LabWare, LabVantage, and similar platforms offer these capabilities.
How to Display Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) Skills on Your Resume
8. Electrochemistry (Potentiometry)
Potentiometry measures the potential between indicator and reference electrodes to infer analyte concentration. Think pH, ion-selective electrodes, redox systems—direct, fast, and quantitative.
Why It's Important
It delivers reliable ion measurements for water quality, pharmaceuticals, food, and process monitoring. Minimal sample prep, maximum utility.
How to Improve Electrochemistry (Potentiometry) Skills
Electrode selection and care: Use the right sensor for the ion and matrix. Condition, store, and clean per guidelines; aging electrodes drift.
Sample handling: Keep ionic strength consistent, avoid contamination, and use ionic strength adjusters where needed.
Temperature control: Maintain constant temperature or compensate; electrode response is temperature dependent.
Calibration: Calibrate with fresh standards bracketing the expected range. Check slope and intercept; investigate out-of-spec values.
Data treatment: Apply appropriate calibration models, replicate measurements, and use statistics to flag outliers quickly.
How to Display Electrochemistry (Potentiometry) Skills on Your Resume
9. Thermal Analysis (DSC)
Differential Scanning Calorimetry measures heat flow to reveal transitions—glass transitions, melting, crystallization, curing, degradation. A thermal fingerprint, compact and telling.
Why It's Important
It informs formulation and processing, verifies material identity and purity, and supports stability studies across polymers, pharmaceuticals, and composites.
How to Improve Thermal Analysis (DSC) Skills
Sample prep: Keep mass and pan contact consistent. Hermetic pans for volatiles; crimp well.
Calibration: Use standard materials (e.g., indium) for temperature and enthalpy calibration on a schedule.
Baseline practices: Run empty-pan baselines and apply corrections to reduce drift and noise.
Atmosphere control: Purge with nitrogen or argon; use oxidative atmospheres only when needed and documented.
Heating rate: Slower ramps increase resolution of close transitions; faster ramps showcase kinetic behavior. Choose deliberately.
Replicates: Confirm key transitions with repeats to demonstrate reproducibility.
Analysis software: Use robust tools for peak integration, Tg determination, and crystallinity calculations with consistent criteria.
How to Display Thermal Analysis (DSC) Skills on Your Resume
10. Rheometry
Rheometry characterizes how materials flow and deform—viscosity, moduli, yield stress, thixotropy—under controlled shear or oscillation. Subtle behavior, big implications for processing.
Why It's Important
It guides formulation decisions, predicts performance in manufacturing, and anchors quality specs for foods, inks, coatings, polymers, and gels.
How to Improve Rheometry Skills
Calibration and maintenance: Verify torque, normal force, and gap. Keep plates clean; roughness and residue skew results.
Sample prep: Control temperature history, loading method, and rest times. Air bubbles are silent trouble—eliminate them.
Temperature control: Use Peltier or fluid baths to maintain tight stability. Report set and measured temperatures.
Geometry choice: Match cone–plate, plate–plate, or concentric cylinder to sample behavior and particle size to avoid edge effects and slip.
Method design: Map linear viscoelastic regions before amplitude/frequency sweeps. Pre-shear to a standardized history for thixotropic systems.
Data analysis: Apply appropriate models (Herschel–Bulkley, Carreau, Maxwell) and report uncertainties, not just point values.
How to Display Rheometry Skills on Your Resume
11. Atomic Absorption (AAS)
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy quantifies metals by measuring element-specific light absorbed by ground-state atoms in a flame or graphite furnace. Straightforward, selective, and sensitive.
Why It's Important
It’s a staple for trace metals in environmental, food, pharma, and materials testing—when accuracy at low levels matters.
How to Improve Atomic Absorption (AAS) Skills
Source optimization: Choose the correct hollow cathode or EDL source and run at the recommended current for stable intensity.
Flame/furnace conditions: Tune oxidant/fuel ratios and pyrolysis/atomization temperatures to reduce interferences and improve atomization.
Sample prep: Use clean digestion protocols, control acidity, and matrix-match standards. Keep results within the linear range.
Modifiers: In GFAAS, apply matrix modifiers to stabilize volatile analytes and sharpen signals.
Background correction: Employ Zeeman, Smith–Hieftje, or deuterium methods to combat non-specific absorption.
Maintenance: Clean nebulizers and burners; check alignment and optics routinely to protect sensitivity.
Method validation: Establish linearity, LOD/LOQ, accuracy, precision, and robustness for the matrix at hand.
How to Display Atomic Absorption (AAS) Skills on Your Resume
12. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
NMR probes magnetic nuclei with radiofrequency energy in a strong magnetic field to reveal molecular structure, dynamics, and environment. It’s deeply informative—connectivity, stereochemistry, purity, and more.
Why It's Important
It provides high-confidence structural elucidation and quantitation in complex mixtures without derivatization. A gold standard for many identity and impurity questions.
How to Improve Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Skills
Sample prep: Choose appropriate deuterated solvents, target concentrations that avoid viscosity issues, and add references when needed. Filter particulates.
Instrument setup: Regularly calibrate field and frequency; properly tune and match the probe. Shimming quality directly sets resolution.
Temperature control: Stabilize temperature for reproducibility and to study dynamics intentionally.
Pulse sequences: Select 1D, 2D, and multinuclear experiments tailored to the problem—COSY, HSQC, HMBC, NOESY, diffusion, and quantitative NMR when appropriate.
Data processing: Apply careful phasing, baseline correction, window functions, and apodization. Use modern tools such as TopSpin or Mnova for assignment and quant.
Hardware upgrades: Higher-field magnets and cryoprobes (from vendors like Bruker or JEOL) increase sensitivity and resolution when the chemistry demands it.
How to Display Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Skills on Your Resume
