Top 12 Histology Technician Skills to Put on Your Resume

A histology technician anchors the lab’s quiet choreography, studying tissues and their structures with patience and sharp precision. To shine in this field and on a resume, blend technical skill with steady hands, clean methods, and a clear, analytic eye. Details matter. So does speed when it counts.

Histology Technician Skills

1. Microtomy
2. Immunohistochemistry
3. Cryosectioning
4. H&E Staining
5. Specimen Processing
6. Digital Pathology
7. Quality Control
8. LIS (Laboratory Information System)
9. Fluorescence Microscopy
10. Tissue Embedding
11. Slide Scanning
12. Molecular Techniques

1. Microtomy

Microtomy is the controlled slicing of tissue blocks into ultrathin sections for microscopic evaluation. Using a microtome, a technician cuts paraffin-embedded tissues into ribbons, floats them onto water, and mounts them onto slides for staining and review.

Why It's Important

Microtomy makes structure visible. Consistent, thin, intact sections reveal architecture and cellular detail, which drives accurate diagnosis and clear research findings.

How to Improve Microtomy Skills

Improving microtomy depends on sharp tools, tuned technique, and disciplined prep.

1. Maintain equipment: Clean the microtome routinely and change blades early. Dull or damaged edges cause chatter, compression, and tears.

2. Prepare specimens well: Fix thoroughly, process consistently, and embed with correct orientation. Poor processing cannot be fixed at the microtome.

3. Control temperature: Match block temperature to tissue type. Use a cold plate or ice to reduce compression; warm slightly to reduce brittleness.

4. Set thickness properly: Most diagnostic sections run 3–5 μm; adjust for tissue density and purpose.

5. Use aids wisely: Employ water, ice, static control, and adhesive slides to reduce wrinkles and rolling.

6. Practice and review: Examine sections under the scope, note artifacts, adjust variables, repeat. Small changes, big gains.

Good sections start long before the cut. Consistency wins.

How to Display Microtomy Skills on Your Resume

2. Immunohistochemistry

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) uses antibodies to detect specific proteins in tissue sections. Signal tells a story: presence, pattern, intensity, and location.

Why It's Important

IHC pinpoints biomarkers that guide diagnosis, classification, prognosis, and therapy. It translates molecular presence into visible stain.

How to Improve Immunohistochemistry Skills

Refine specificity, reduce noise, protect signal.

1. Tissue preparation: Use appropriate fixation (commonly 10% neutral buffered formalin) and validated processing to preserve antigenicity.

2. Antigen retrieval: Select heat-induced or enzymatic retrieval matched to the target. This step unmasks epitopes for binding.

3. Block nonspecific binding: Apply serum or protein blocks and consider endogenous enzyme/biotin blocking as needed.

4. Titrate antibodies: Optimize primary and secondary concentrations and incubation times for the best signal-to-noise ratio.

5. Choose detection wisely: HRP or AP systems, polymer-based reagents, and amplification methods can rescue low-abundance targets.

6. Run controls: Positive, negative, and isotype controls validate specificity and technique.

7. Mount appropriately: Pair mounting media with chromogenic or fluorescent readouts to preserve signal and clarity.

Iterate protocols. Keep a log. Patterns emerge, and results stabilize.

How to Display Immunohistochemistry Skills on Your Resume

3. Cryosectioning

Cryosectioning rapidly freezes tissue, then sections it in a cryostat. No paraffin, minimal processing, quick turnaround. Ideal for intraoperative consultation and preserving enzymes and lipids.

Why It's Important

Speed without ruining biology. Frozen sections maintain water content and many molecular targets, enabling fast reads and downstream assays.

How to Improve Cryosectioning Skills

Temperature, blade, touch.

1. Tissue prep: Embed in OCT for support, ensure complete freezing, and avoid ice crystals. Pre-cool specimens; handle gently.

2. Sectioning technique: Keep block and chamber temperatures consistent for the tissue type. Use sharp blades. Typical thickness: 5–10 μm.

3. Cryostat care: Clean regularly, defrost on schedule, verify temperature accuracy, and replace blades early.

4. Troubleshoot artifacts: Adjust temperature for chatter or curling, alter cutting speed, reorient difficult tissues, or replace the blade.

5. Document settings: Record optimal temperatures and thickness per tissue type to reproduce good results.

Gentle handling and temperature discipline pay off immediately.

How to Display Cryosectioning Skills on Your Resume

4. H&E Staining

Hematoxylin stains nuclei blue to purple; eosin paints cytoplasm and extracellular matrix in pinks and reds. The classic contrast that frames nearly every case.

Why It's Important

H&E is the foundation. Architecture, inflammation, necrosis, tumor margins—it all begins here.

How to Improve H&E Staining Skills

Uniformity and control are everything.

1. Standardize: Fix a protocol and follow it. Automated stainers help reduce variability.

2. Watch reagent health: Track usage, filter solutions, and replace on schedule to avoid muddy results.

3. Manage pH and oxidation: Maintain hematoxylin pH and monitor ripening; adjust bluing carefully for crisp nuclei.

4. Hydration/dehydration: Respect time in graded alcohols and xylene; rushed transitions create uneven staining.

5. Use control slides: Daily controls anchor consistency and flag drift early.

6. Limit delays: Minimize time between sectioning and staining to reduce oxidation and artifacts.

7. Maintain equipment: Clean baths, change reagents, and service stainers to prevent carryover and contamination.

8. Keep learning: Periodically review slides with pathologists and tweak protocol to the consensus standard.

When H&E is right, everything downstream reads cleaner.

How to Display H&E Staining Skills on Your Resume

5. Specimen Processing

Processing moves tissue from fixation through dehydration, clearing, and infiltration so it’s ready for embedding and sectioning. It protects morphology while preparing for the blade.

Why It's Important

Good processing is invisible. Bad processing is unforgettable. It determines section quality, staining fidelity, and diagnostic clarity.

How to Improve Specimen Processing Skills

Consistency first, then speed.

1. Standardize protocols: Match programs to tissue size and type; document times, reagents, and temperatures.

2. Fix properly: Use appropriate fixative volume and time; avoid over- or under-fixation that wrecks antigens and morphology.

3. Maintain equipment: Calibrate processors, monitor vacuum/pressure, change reagents on schedule, and log everything.

4. Quality checks: Use control tissues and routine audits to catch drift early.

5. Smart workflow: Batch logically by size and tissue type; apply lean principles to cut waiting and rework.

6. Selective automation: Employ automated processors and tracking to boost throughput while preserving quality.

Stable processes free you to focus on the tough cases.

How to Display Specimen Processing Skills on Your Resume

6. Digital Pathology

Digital pathology converts glass slides into whole slide images (WSI) that can be viewed, measured, shared, and analyzed on-screen. It blends scanning hardware, viewing software, storage, and analytics.

Why It's Important

Digitization enables remote consults, rapid second opinions, streamlined education, and computational image analysis. It also stabilizes quality and preserves slides against time.

How to Improve Digital Pathology Skills

Focus on image quality, interoperability, and workflow.

1. Use high-quality scanning: Select appropriate objective magnification, adjust focus maps, and validate color fidelity against reference slides.

2. Standardize inputs: Optimize staining consistency and coverslip quality to reduce scanner variability.

3. Build efficient workflows: Integrate WSI with LIS/LIMS, barcoding, and case queues. Streamline sign-out and review steps.

4. QC and validation: Validate scanners and viewers for diagnostic use; monitor artifacts, stitching errors, and failed scans routinely.

5. Leverage analytics carefully: Apply AI-assisted tools for quantification and detection where validated; keep human oversight front and center.

6. Plan for scale: Use tiered storage, robust backup, and standardized formats (including emerging DICOM for WSI) to future-proof data.

When the digital chain is tight end to end, collaboration feels instant.

How to Display Digital Pathology Skills on Your Resume

7. Quality Control

Quality Control (QC) safeguards every stage—processing, embedding, microtomy, staining, and scanning—so final slides meet defined standards and support accurate diagnosis.

Why It's Important

Reliable results protect patients. QC catches drift, prevents repeat work, and builds trust between the bench and the pathologist’s eye.

How to Improve Quality Control Skills

Make quality a habit, not a project.

1. Standardize SOPs: Clear protocols for each step reduce variability and simplify training.

2. Calibrate and maintain: Schedule preventive maintenance and calibration for processors, stainers, microtomes, cryostats, scanners, and microscopes.

3. External checks: Engage in proficiency testing and inter-lab comparisons to benchmark performance.

4. Track errors: Log artifacts, mislabels, and repeats; analyze trends; implement countermeasures.

5. Audit regularly: Internal audits verify compliance and uncover hidden bottlenecks.

6. Train continuously: Short refreshers, competency assessments, and cross-training keep quality resilient.

Quality is visible on the slide and measurable in the data.

How to Display Quality Control Skills on Your Resume

8. LIS (Laboratory Information System)

A Laboratory Information System (LIS) manages orders, specimens, workflows, results, images, and reports. It ties people, instruments, and data together with audit trails and security.

Why It's Important

LIS streamlines accessioning, barcoding, tracking, and sign-out. It reduces manual entry, enforces QC steps, and supports compliance, communication, and turnaround time.

How to Improve LIS (Laboratory Information System) Skills

Make data flow with fewer keystrokes and fewer handoffs.

1. Integrate systems: Connect LIS with scanners, stainers, WSI platforms, and EMR using HL7/FHIR and robust barcoding.

2. Automate inputs: Use barcode scanning, templates, and voice dictation where appropriate to cut transcription errors.

3. Customize workflows: Tailor histology task lists, batch processing, and approvals to the lab’s real-world patterns.

4. Embed QC/QA: Build checkpoints, required fields, and competency tracking directly into the system.

5. Improve communication: Enable in-system messaging, case flags, and status dashboards for technicians and pathologists.

6. Train and iterate: Provide ongoing training, gather user feedback, and refine screens and steps to reduce clicks.

When LIS fits the work, errors shrink and throughput climbs.

How to Display LIS (Laboratory Information System) Skills on Your Resume

9. Fluorescence Microscopy

Fluorescence microscopy excites fluorophores and captures their emitted light, revealing specific molecules and structures with high contrast and specificity.

Why It's Important

It unlocks targets invisible to brightfield, enables multiplexing, and supports both research and advanced diagnostics.

How to Improve Fluorescence Microscopy Skills

Protect signal, tame background.

1. Prepare samples carefully: Validate fixation, section thickness, and dye/antibody concentrations. Include anti-fade mounting media where needed.

2. Optimize the scope: Match filter sets to fluorophores, verify alignment, and keep optics meticulously clean.

3. Acquire with intent: Adjust exposure, gain, and binning per channel; minimize photobleaching with brief exposures and neutral density filters.

4. Prevent bleed-through: Separate overlapping spectra, use sequential acquisition, and apply proper emission filters.

5. Process judiciously: Apply deconvolution and noise reduction without distorting data; document every adjustment.

Small tweaks in setup yield striking jumps in clarity.

How to Display Fluorescence Microscopy Skills on Your Resume

10. Tissue Embedding

Embedding encases tissue in paraffin, locking orientation and support so sections cut cleanly at the microtome.

Why It's Important

Correct orientation and firm infiltration mean fewer recuts, better morphology, and smoother downstream staining.

How to Improve Tissue Embedding Skills

Think ahead to the cut.

1. Verify processing: Ensure full dehydration and paraffin infiltration; incomplete steps doom sections.

2. Orient with purpose: Align epithelium, margins, and lumens to face the blade. Keep surfaces flat and centered.

3. Control temperature: Keep paraffin just above melting point; avoid overheating that harms tissue.

4. Cool rapidly: Use a cold plate to solidify blocks quickly and prevent crystallization artifacts.

5. Handle gently: Use fine instruments; avoid compression or distortion while positioning.

6. Maintain stations: Clean molds, replace paraffin routinely, and check temperatures daily.

The best ribbons begin at the embedding center.

How to Display Tissue Embedding Skills on Your Resume

11. Slide Scanning

Slide scanning turns glass slides into high-resolution digital images for review, sharing, measurement, and archiving.

Why It's Important

Digital slides enable remote reads, training libraries, quantitative analysis, and durable storage. Access from anywhere, with fidelity.

How to Improve Slide Scanning Skills

Quality in, quality out.

1. Clean everything: Remove dust and fingerprints from slides and optics; artifacts look like pathology if you let them.

2. Prepare slides well: Uniform thickness, consistent staining, and bubble-free coverslips support better focus and stitching.

3. Calibrate routinely: Validate color and focus; use reference targets and periodic performance checks.

4. Tune scan settings: Choose the right resolution and focus strategy; avoid oversampling that bloats files without adding detail.

5. Maintain the scanner: Follow cleaning and service schedules; log failures and rescans to spot trends.

6. Use capable software: Employ viewers with smooth navigation, annotations, and reliable export—without overprocessing the image.

A disciplined scanning pipeline saves hours later.

How to Display Slide Scanning Skills on Your Resume

12. Molecular Techniques

Molecular techniques in histology probe DNA, RNA, and proteins within tissue context. Think PCR, in situ hybridization (including FISH), and related assays that link morphology to molecular signal.

Why It's Important

Molecular readouts sharpen diagnosis, reveal actionable targets, and clarify prognosis. They align what’s seen on the slide with what’s happening in the genome or proteome.

How to Improve Molecular Techniques Skills

Guard precision at every step.

1. Control pre-analytics: Standardize fixation time, thickness, and storage. Pre-analytical variation is the silent saboteur.

2. Enforce contamination control: Separate clean and dirty zones, use UNG or physical barriers, add no-template controls, and track lot performance.

3. Validate assays: Verify sensitivity, specificity, and limit of detection; include appropriate positive and negative controls every run.

4. Document meticulously: Record cycles, temperatures, probe conditions, and deviations; reproducibility depends on it.

5. Adopt smart automation: Use validated automated platforms where possible to reduce variability and increase throughput.

6. Stay current: Update probes/panels as guidelines evolve; align with tumor-specific and disease-specific recommendations.

When morphology and molecules agree, confidence soars.

How to Display Molecular Techniques Skills on Your Resume