Top 12 Laboratory Analyst Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting an effective resume as a laboratory analyst means spotlighting the right mix of hard science and human finesse—precision in the work, clarity in the documentation, calm problem-solving when methods wobble, and teamwork that keeps projects humming. When you bring forward the skills below with real outcomes and context, you signal readiness for complex benches, rigorous compliance, and collaborative research.
Laboratory Analyst Skills
- HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
- GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
- PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
- ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
- NMR Spectroscopy
- UV/Vis Spectrophotometry
- Flow Cytometry
- Western Blotting
- Microscopy (Confocal, Electron)
- Bioinformatics
- LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System)
- ISO 17025 Compliance
1. HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
HPLC is an analytical workhorse for separating, identifying, and quantifying components in complex mixtures by pushing samples through a column under high pressure and detecting eluting analytes with a suitable detector.
Why It's Important
It delivers clean separations, robust quantitation, and trace-level sensitivity vital to QC, method development, and research across pharmaceuticals, environmental testing, food science, and beyond.
How to Improve HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills
Dial in fundamentals and results tighten fast.
Mobile phase tuning: Adjust solvent strength, pH, buffer type, and ionic strength to sharpen selectivity and resolution.
Column choice and care: Match stationary phase to analyte chemistry; use guards; filter and degas; store properly to extend life.
Sample prep: Clarify, filter (0.2–0.45 μm), clean up (SPE/precipitation) to protect columns and boost sensitivity.
Gradient strategy: Employ scouting gradients, then refine slopes and holds for complex matrices.
Temperature control: Stabilize viscosity and kinetics; modest heat often tightens peaks and reproducibility.
Flow and dwell time: Optimize flow rate and understand system dwell to align gradients with column dimensions.
Detector matching: Choose UV, FLD, CAD, MS, or RID based on analyte properties and required LOD/LOQ.
System maintenance: Leak-checks, seal changes, degassing, and routine calibrations prevent drift and downtime.
Method validation: Verify accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity, range, robustness, and stability.
Leverage UHPLC when appropriate: Sub-2 μm or core–shell media can slash run times while improving resolution.
How to Display HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills on Your Resume
2. GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
GC-MS separates volatile compounds by gas chromatography, then identifies and quantifies them via mass spectrometry, marrying retention behavior with mass spectral fingerprints.
Why It's Important
It delivers confident identification and sensitive quantitation in tangled matrices—core to environmental monitoring, forensics, flavor/fragrance work, and process control.
How to Improve GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) Skills
Thoughtful sample prep: Clean extracts (SPE, LLE, QuEChERS), remove particulates, and stabilize analytes to reduce matrix noise.
Column selection: Stationary phase polarity, film thickness, and dimensions must fit the target analytes and matrix demands.
Carrier gas and flow: Balance speed and resolution; consider hydrogen for faster analyses (with proper safety controls) or helium for broad compatibility.
Injection optimization: Select split/splitless or PTV; manage inlet temperature, liner type, and split ratios to protect thermolabile compounds and preserve peak shape.
Temperature programs: Build ramps and holds to separate early volatiles and late sticklers without bloating run times.
MS tuning and calibration: Regular tunes, mass accuracy checks, and source cleaning guard sensitivity and identification confidence.
Method validation: Establish linearity, LOD/LOQ, accuracy, precision, carryover, matrix effects, and robustness.
Leak-free system: Frequent septum/liner swaps and leak checks prevent ghost peaks and baseline mischief.
Data processing: Use deconvolution, retention index workflows, accurate integration, and curated libraries for higher certainty calls.
How to Display GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) Skills on Your Resume
3. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
PCR amplifies specific DNA sequences with startling sensitivity, enabling genotyping, pathogen detection, cloning, and mutation analysis.
Why It's Important
It turns tiny traces into interpretable data—fast, targeted, and essential for diagnostics, research, and quality screens.
How to Improve PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills
Primer design first: Balanced Tm, minimal dimers/hairpins, amplicon length tuned to the application.
Template integrity: Clean extractions, check purity ratios and concentration; avoid inhibitors.
Annealing temperature: Use gradient runs to find the sweet spot for specificity and yield.
Mg2+ and additives: Titrate MgCl2; for GC-rich targets, consider DMSO or formamide in modest amounts.
Hot-start enzymes: Reduce non-specific starts and primer-dimers for cleaner bands and curves.
Cycles and times: Avoid overcycling; adjust denaturation/extension to polymerase speed and amplicon size.
Contamination control: Physical separation of pre/post-PCR, aerosol-resistant tips, and dUTP/UNG carryover prevention when appropriate.
Controls: No-template, positive, and inhibition controls anchor interpretation.
How to Display PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills on Your Resume
4. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
ELISA detects and quantifies biomolecules on microplates through immobilization, highly specific antibody binding, and enzyme-mediated signal generation.
Why It's Important
Sensitive, scalable, and adaptable to many targets—ideal for diagnostics, biomarker verification, and product release testing.
How to Improve ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills
Antibody quality: High-affinity, well-characterized pairs; confirm cross-reactivity and matrix behavior.
Coating conditions: Optimize pH, ionic strength, and time for robust immobilization without denaturation.
Blocking: Compare BSA, casein, fish gelatin, or commercial blends—lowest background, highest signal wins.
Wash rigor: Consistent, thorough washes reduce nonspecific signal; dial in detergent and cycles.
Diluents and matrix: Match sample diluent to matrix; mitigate interference with spike-recovery studies.
Incubation control: Temperature and timing matter; standardize to clamp variability.
Detection chemistry: Choose colorimetric or fluorescent substrates for the required sensitivity and dynamic range.
Instrument checks: Calibrate plate readers; verify linearity and wavelength accuracy routinely.
QC every run: Positive/negative controls, blanks, standard curves with appropriate models (4PL/5PL).
How to Display ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills on Your Resume
5. NMR Spectroscopy
NMR characterizes molecular structures and dynamics by observing nuclei in a magnetic field as they absorb and re-emit radiofrequency energy.
Why It's Important
It reveals connectivity, conformation, purity, and interactions—information other methods often can’t touch with the same confidence.
How to Improve NMR Spectroscopy Skills
Sample prep precision: Right concentration, clean deuterated solvent, no bubbles, uniform fill height; dryness and purity pay dividends.
Instrument care: Regular calibration and shimming; monitor probe performance; maintain cryogens or manage cryogen-free systems per specs.
Acquisition savvy: Select pulse sequences fit to the question (1D, DEPT, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, NOESY); adjust relaxation delays, pulse angles, and scans to optimize S/N and quantitation.
Processing discipline: Baseline correction, phasing, apodization, zero-filling, and careful referencing; use reliable tools for deconvolution and assignment.
Documentation: Record conditions and parameters so results are reproducible and comparable across runs.
How to Display NMR Spectroscopy Skills on Your Resume
6. UV/Vis Spectrophotometry
UV/Vis spectrophotometry measures absorbance or transmittance in the ultraviolet and visible range to infer concentration, purity, and chemical behavior.
Why It's Important
Fast, nondestructive quantitation with broad applicability—staple technique for routine assays and method development alike.
How to Improve UV/Vis Spectrophotometry Skills
Calibrate and verify: Check wavelength accuracy, photometric linearity, and stray light with certified standards on a schedule.
Cuvette discipline: Clean, matched pathlength, oriented consistently; avoid fingerprints and bubbles.
Sample handling: Clarify turbid samples; correct for turbidity when necessary; keep within linear range via appropriate dilution.
Blanks and baselines: Use matrix-matched blanks; re-zero when conditions change.
Temperature control: Stabilize when analytes are thermally sensitive or equilibria shift with heat.
Spectral scans: Scan before fixed-wavelength reads to confirm λmax and check for interferences.
SOP adherence: Train analysts, standardize timing and order of steps, and track instrument performance.
QC inclusion: Run controls with known concentrations to watch precision and accuracy over time.
How to Display UV/Vis Spectrophotometry Skills on Your Resume
7. Flow Cytometry
Flow cytometry measures physical and chemical characteristics of cells or particles as they zip through lasers in single file, enabling multiparameter analysis and sorting.
Why It's Important
High-throughput, high-content cellular profiling—indispensable for immunology, oncology, cell therapy, and more.
How to Improve Flow Cytometry Skills
Pristine samples: Prevent clumps, use DNAse if needed, filter; include viability dyes to exclude dead cells.
Antibody titration: Determine optimal concentrations per clone and fluor; too much equals noise, too little drops your positives.
Instrument performance: Daily QC, standardized voltages, and regular calibration to stabilize day-to-day comparisons.
Compensation or unmixing: Correct spectral overlap with proper single-stain controls; for spectral systems, use robust reference controls.
Controls and gating: Include FMO, isotype (when appropriate), and biological controls; build gating hierarchies that are transparent and repeatable.
Panel design: Spread bright fluorophores onto dim markers; avoid heavy spectral collisions.
Analysis discipline: Apply reproducible gating strategies and document decisions; automate where suitable but verify manually.
How to Display Flow Cytometry Skills on Your Resume
8. Western Blotting
Western blotting separates proteins by size, transfers them to a membrane, and detects targets via specific antibodies and sensitive chemistries.
Why It's Important
It confirms protein presence, size, and relative abundance, and can probe post-translational modifications with selectivity.
How to Improve Western Blotting Skills
Sample integrity: Accurate protein quantitation, protease/phosphatase inhibitors when needed, and consistent loading.
Gel optimization: Choose acrylamide percentage for your target’s size; confirm even polymerization and consistent run conditions.
Transfer efficiency: Select PVDF (activate in methanol) or nitrocellulose; tune time, current/voltage, and buffer for target size.
Blocking and antibodies: Pick a blocking agent that lowers background without masking epitopes; titrate primary/secondary antibodies.
Washing rigor: Adequate volume and duration in TBST (or appropriate buffer) tamp down nonspecific signal.
Detection choice: Chemiluminescent for sensitivity, fluorescent for multiplex and broad dynamic range; align with your imager.
Normalization: Prefer total protein normalization or stable loading controls over variable housekeeping proteins.
Troubleshooting mindset: High background, weak signal, or blowouts each point to specific fixes—adjust blocking, antibody dilutions, transfer, or exposure.
How to Display Western Blotting Skills on Your Resume
9. Microscopy (Confocal, Electron)
Confocal microscopy delivers crisp optical sections and 3D reconstructions using lasers and fluorescence. Electron microscopy trades photons for electrons, unlocking nanometer-scale views of ultrastructure.
Why It's Important
It lets analysts see what methods can only imply—localization, morphology, interfaces, defects, and interactions at fine resolution.
How to Improve Microscopy (Confocal, Electron) Skills
Confocal Microscopy
Laser and pinhole balance: Enough power for signal, not so much you bleach; adjust pinhole to tune resolution versus brightness.
Smart fluorophore choices: High quantum yield, low bleed-through, minimal photobleaching; match filters and minimize spectral overlap.
Sample preparation: Gentle fixation, permeabilization, and mounting; refractive index matching improves depth imaging.
Z-stack strategy: Nyquist sampling, proper step size, and deconvolution tighten reconstructions.
Electron Microscopy
Contrast enhancement: Heavy metal stains or phase-contrast methods boost visibility of fine structures.
Beam management: Tune accelerating voltage and dose to balance resolution with beam damage.
Cryo workflows: Preserve native states and reduce artifacts; ideal for delicate biological assemblies.
Meticulous prep: Fixation, dehydration, embedding, and ultramicrotomy (TEM) or careful coating/polishing (SEM) make or break images.
General Tips
Calibration and maintenance: Regular alignments, stage calibrations, objective care, and vacuum system checks protect data quality.
Image analysis: Use consistent pipelines for denoising, segmentation, and quantification; document parameters for reproducibility.
Safety and cleanliness: Dust, vibration, and static wreak havoc; maintain clean rooms and stable environments where required.
How to Display Microscopy (Confocal, Electron) Skills on Your Resume
10. Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics applies computation to biological data—genomes, transcripts, proteins—to extract meaning, patterns, and actionable hypotheses.
Why It's Important
It transforms volumes of raw reads and signals into decisions: targets to validate, variants to report, pathways to explore.
How to Improve Bioinformatics Skills
Foundations first: Refresh statistics, experimental design, and core molecular biology so analysis aligns with biology.
Programming fluency: Python and R for data wrangling, visualization, and pipelines; command-line comfort is a force multiplier.
Toolchain mastery: Practice with alignment, variant calling, differential expression, and annotation tools; keep environments reproducible with containers.
Data hygiene: Version control, metadata standards, and well-documented workflows enable re-use and auditing.
Real datasets: Work on public or in-house datasets end to end—from QC to interpretation—to build intuition.
Stay current: Track algorithm updates, formats, and community best practices; retire stale pipelines when evidence says so.
How to Display Bioinformatics Skills on Your Resume
11. LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System)
A LIMS manages samples, workflows, data, results, and reports, streamlining operations and safeguarding data integrity.
Why It's Important
It reduces manual errors, speeds reviews, enforces SOPs, and strengthens traceability—key for high-throughput labs and regulated environments.
How to Improve LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) Skills
Instrument integration: Connect instruments for direct data capture; eliminate transcription and lag.
Barcode-first workflows: Standardize sample IDs and routing to crush mislabeling risk.
Configurable templates: Use forms, calculations, and rules that reflect your SOPs; avoid free-text where structured fields fit.
Compliance support: Enable audit trails, permissions, and electronic signatures aligned to GLP and 21 CFR Part 11 requirements.
Reporting and analytics: Build dashboards for TAT, rework rates, QC trends, and capacity planning.
Training and feedback loops: Upskill users, gather feedback, iterate configurations, and document changes.
How to Display LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) Skills on Your Resume
12. ISO 17025 Compliance
ISO/IEC 17025 sets the competence and quality system requirements for testing and calibration laboratories, ensuring valid, traceable results.
Why It's Important
Compliance builds trust—results become defensible, comparable across borders, and accepted by regulators and customers.
How to Improve ISO 17025 Compliance Skills
Know the standard: Focus on the current ISO/IEC 17025:2017 framework—risk-based thinking, impartiality, competence, and consistent outputs.
Method proficiency: Participate in proficiency testing and interlaboratory comparisons; investigate outliers and implement corrective actions.
Quality control: Controls, blanks, reference materials, calibration verification, and ongoing method performance tracking.
Metrological traceability: Use calibrated equipment and reference standards traceable to national or international references; quantify measurement uncertainty.
Document everything: SOPs, deviations, CAPAs, training records, equipment logs—clear, current, and controlled.
Internal audits and reviews: Audit on a schedule, close findings effectively, and run management reviews that drive continuous improvement.
Data integrity: Apply ALCOA+ principles across paper and electronic records; validate software and secure access appropriately.
How to Display ISO 17025 Compliance Skills on Your Resume
