Top 12 Server Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today’s competitive tech job market, showcasing the right server and infrastructure skills on your resume can lift your chances of landing roles in backend engineering, DevOps, SRE, or platform teams. Below you’ll find the top 12 server skills that hiring managers value, with practical notes to help you sharpen them and present them clearly.

Server Skills

1. SQL
2. PostgreSQL
3. MongoDB
4. Apache
5. Nginx
6. Docker
7. Kubernetes
8. Redis
9. AWS
10. Node.js
11. PowerShell
12. Linux

1. SQL

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard for defining, querying, and manipulating data in relational databases. It underpins reporting, transactions, analytics, and the heartbeat of countless production systems.

Why It's Important

Servers and services rely on efficient data access. SQL provides a consistent, expressive way to create schemas, read and write data, enforce constraints, and power dynamic applications at scale.

How to Improve SQL Skills

Focus on performance and correctness, then scale with structure:

1. Optimize queries: Select only needed columns, avoid SELECT *, push filters down early, and trim unnecessary joins or subqueries.

2. Index with intent: Add covering and composite indexes for frequent filters and sorts. Revisit unused or overlapping indexes regularly.

3. Model data thoughtfully: Normalize to reduce anomalies; denormalize tactically for read-heavy paths.

4. Read query plans: Use EXPLAIN/EXPLAIN ANALYZE to understand scans vs. seeks, join strategies, and cardinality estimates.

5. Partition large tables: Time- or key-based partitioning simplifies retention and speeds targeted queries.

6. Cache hot reads: Layer an application cache for frequently accessed, slow-to-compute results.

7. Tune concurrency: Choose sane transaction isolation levels and keep transactions short to reduce lock contention.

8. Maintain regularly: Update statistics, rebuild or reorganize indexes when fragmentation creeps, and run integrity checks.

Small wins add up. A single high-impact index or query rewrite can slice response times dramatically.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume

2. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful open-source relational database with strong ACID guarantees, rich indexing, JSON support, window functions, and extensions like PostGIS.

Why It's Important

It blends reliability with advanced features, handling transactional workloads, analytics, and hybrid SQL/JSON use cases with grace.

How to Improve PostgreSQL Skills

Tune posture first, then queries, then the box:

1. Right-size memory: Calibrate shared_buffers, work_mem, maintenance_work_mem, and effective_cache_size to your hardware and workload.

2. Use the right index: B-Tree for equality/range, GIN/JSONB for document queries, GiST for spatial or fuzzy matching, BRIN for big append-only ranges.

3. Interrogate plans: EXPLAIN/EXPLAIN ANALYZE to confirm cardinality and join strategies; fix slow sorts and sequential scans.

4. Pool connections: Add PgBouncer or Pgpool-II to tame connection overhead and spikes.

5. Routine care: Autovacuum tuned correctly, ANALYZE after large ingests, occasional REINDEX where bloat bites.

6. Partition giants: Native partitioning reduces index sizes and speeds time-based queries and retention.

7. Hardware matters: Fast SSDs, ample RAM, and decent CPUs move the ceiling upward. Align to workload shape.

Measure, change one thing, measure again. Postgres rewards patience and precision.

How to Display PostgreSQL Skills on Your Resume

3. MongoDB

MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database built for flexible schemas, high availability, and horizontal scale.

Why It's Important

Great for fast iteration with evolving data models and workloads that benefit from sharding and replica sets.

How to Improve MongoDB Skills

Think indexes, distribution, and discipline:

1. Index deliberately: Match indexes to query patterns, sort orders, and cardinality. Avoid scatter-gun indexing.

2. Shard where it counts: Pick a shard key with good cardinality and distribution; avoid monotonically increasing keys.

3. Sharpen queries: Project only required fields, leverage covered queries, and avoid unbounded scans.

4. Mind the hardware: RAM first, then fast SSDs. Keep working set in memory where possible.

5. Pool connections: Reuse connections to cut overhead under load.

6. Monitor and profile: Use profiling and telemetry to spot slow ops, lock contention, and cache churn.

7. Replicate for resilience: Replica sets for HA; understand write concerns and read preferences.

Set guardrails early. Good shard keys and index choices save late-stage pain.

How to Display MongoDB Skills on Your Resume

4. Apache

Apache HTTP Server powers dynamic and static content with a modular architecture and broad ecosystem support.

Why It's Important

Mature, flexible, and battle-tested. It slots into many stacks, integrates with countless modules, and runs almost anywhere.

How to Improve Apache Skills

Trim overhead, boost throughput, keep it safe:

1. Enable compression: Use mod_deflate or mod_brotli to shrink response sizes.

2. Leverage caching: mod_cache and proper cache headers reduce repeated work.

3. Dial in MPM: Choose event or worker MPM for better concurrency than prefork in most cases.

4. Tune knobs: Calibrate MaxRequestWorkers, KeepAlive, and TimeOut to your traffic profile.

5. Serve static smartly: Far-future expires and ETags on assets; offload to a CDN when feasible.

6. Monitor live: mod_status and logs surface hotspots, slow endpoints, and saturation.

7. Lock down TLS: Strong ciphers, TLS 1.3, OCSP stapling, and HSTS where appropriate. Keep modules current.

Start with the biggest rocks: compression, caching, and the right MPM often deliver outsized gains.

How to Display Apache Skills on Your Resume

5. Nginx

Nginx is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy known for low memory use, predictable concurrency, and clean configuration.

Why It's Important

It excels at serving static content, terminating TLS, load balancing upstreams, and acting as a sturdy edge for microservices.

How to Improve Nginx Skills

Configure with intent, measure relentlessly:

1. Match workers to cores: Set worker_processes to CPU cores and align worker_connections with expected concurrency.

2. Compress smartly: Enable gzip or brotli for text assets; skip for already-compressed types.

3. Cache aggressively: Use microcaching for short-lived dynamic content and proper cache headers for static assets.

4. Adopt modern HTTP: Enable HTTP/2; consider HTTP/3 (QUIC) for better latency and mobile networks.

5. Rate and connection limits: limit_req and limit_conn blunt abusive traffic and reduce meltdown risk.

6. TLS tuning: TLS 1.3, session resumption, and OCSP stapling reduce handshake overhead.

7. Observability: Structured logs, metrics export, and graceful reloads (nginx -s reload) keep changes safe.

A small config tweak can unlock large wins when traffic spikes.

How to Display Nginx Skills on Your Resume

6. Docker

Docker packages apps and dependencies into containers for consistent runs across environments. Build once, run anywhere sensible.

Why It's Important

Consistency, isolation, and portability speed delivery and reduce “works on my machine” headaches. Containers are the bedrock of modern deployments.

How to Improve Docker Skills

Smaller images, smarter runtime, cleaner hosts:

1. Trim images: Use lean base images, multi-stage builds, and minimize layers to cut size and attack surface.

2. Constrain resources: Apply CPU and memory limits per container to prevent noisy neighbors.

3. Compose and profiles: Use Docker Compose for multi-service dev, healthchecks, and environment parity.

4. Enable BuildKit: Faster, cache-aware builds; secrets handled correctly at build time.

5. Prefer volumes: Use named volumes for persistence; pick storage drivers that fit your platform.

6. Network clearly: Choose bridge/host/overlay intentionally; map ports minimally.

7. Clean regularly: Prune unused images, containers, volumes, networks to reclaim space.

8. Scan and sign: Vulnerability scans, SBOMs, and image signing strengthen supply chain trust.

9. Stay current: Keep the engine and kernel up to date for performance and security gains.

10. Observe: Centralized logs and metrics reveal hotspots and runaway containers.

Fast feedback loops come from fast builds and deterministic environments.

How to Display Docker Skills on Your Resume

7. Kubernetes

Kubernetes orchestrates containers across clusters, automating deployment, scaling, and recovery.

Why It's Important

It standardizes how services are scheduled, networked, and configured, enabling high availability and elastic scaling across environments.

How to Improve Kubernetes Skills

Resource hygiene and observability win the long game:

1. Right-size clusters: Balance node counts and instance types to match workload patterns; avoid both idle sprawl and saturation.

2. Requests and limits: Define CPU/memory requests and limits to help the scheduler and protect nodes.

3. Autoscale wisely: Use Horizontal Pod Autoscaler; consider Cluster Autoscaler for bursty demand.

4. Fast, safe networking: Choose a performant CNI and lean network policies; reduce cross-AZ chatty traffic.

5. Storage fit: Match storage classes to workload I/O; mind IOPS and latency.

6. Deep observability: Metrics, logs, and traces stitched together to pinpoint noisy pods and failing rollouts.

7. Stay updated: Keep control plane and nodes within supported version skew; rotate credentials routinely.

8. Security posture: RBAC, pod security standards, minimal base images, and secrets management as table stakes.

9. Stateless first: Prefer stateless services; for stateful, use managed storage and well-tested failover.

10. Managed services: Consider GKE/EKS/AKS for simplified upgrades, autoscaling, and control-plane reliability.

Ship small changes frequently. Health probes and rollout strategies guard uptime.

How to Display Kubernetes Skills on Your Resume

8. Redis

Redis is an in-memory key-value data store that supports diverse structures (strings, hashes, lists, sets, streams) and blazes through reads and writes.

Why It's Important

Perfect for caching, rate limiting, sessions, queues, leaderboards, and real-time analytics where microseconds matter.

How to Improve Redis Skills

Memory is precious; make every byte and round-trip count:

1. Choose data types well: Pick the most compact structures; pack data efficiently.

2. Control memory: Set maxmemory and an eviction policy; monitor fragmentation and hit rates.

3. Persistence trade-offs: Select RDB, AOF, or both based on durability needs and write amplification tolerance.

4. Connection reuse: Pool connections and keep them alive to slash overhead.

5. Pipelining and Lua: Batch commands and use Lua scripts to reduce round-trips and keep logic near the data.

6. Scale out: Cluster for sharding and HA; pick a hash slot strategy aligned with access patterns.

7. Profile and monitor: Track latency percentiles, command stats, and keyspace churn; alert on backlog and eviction spikes.

8. Keep current: Newer Redis versions often bring big performance and feature wins.

9. Tune the host: Use fast CPUs, disable swap for critical nodes, and ensure NUMA settings don’t bite.

Low latency is Redis’s superpower—protect it fiercely.

How to Display Redis Skills on Your Resume

9. AWS

AWS provides on-demand compute, storage, networking, and managed services to run applications globally.

Why It's Important

Scale up or out quickly, pay for what you use, and lean on managed building blocks to move faster with fewer operational surprises.

How to Improve AWS Skills

Think performance, security, and cost—continuously:

1. Right-size compute: Match instance families to workloads (compute-, memory-, or IO-optimized). Consider Graviton for a strong price/perf punch.

2. Autoscale: Use autoscaling groups and load balancers to ride traffic waves safely.

3. Network smart: Design VPCs with clear segmentation, private subnets, and minimal public exposure; use security groups over permissive ACLs.

4. Observe everything: Centralize logs and metrics; set alarms for saturation, errors, and spend anomalies.

5. Lock it down: Principle of least privilege in IAM, key rotation, and encryption at rest/in transit as defaults.

6. Control spend: Rightsize, schedule shutdowns for non-prod, buy Savings Plans or Reserved Instances for steady loads.

Cloud efficiency is iterative. Measure, adjust, repeat.

How to Display AWS Skills on Your Resume

10. Node.js

Node.js runs JavaScript on the server with an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that thrives under concurrent load.

Why It's Important

It powers APIs and real-time apps efficiently, especially when workloads are I/O-bound and connections are many.

How to Improve Node.js Skills

Keep the event loop breathing and the hot path lean:

1. Go async: Prefer asynchronous APIs; avoid blocking calls that stall the event loop.

2. Cache wisely: In-memory or Redis caching for hot lookups and expensive computations.

3. Optimize data access: Index your databases, reduce chattiness, and batch requests when feasible.

4. Scale horizontally: Run multiple workers or processes behind a load balancer. Use a process manager (e.g., PM2) for clustering and restarts.

5. Profile and monitor: Flamegraphs, heap snapshots, and metrics uncover leaks and bottlenecks.

6. Stream large payloads: Streams and backpressure beat loading everything into memory.

7. Trim dependencies: Fewer, well-maintained packages; keep Node and libs updated for speed and security.

8. Compress responses: Use HTTP compression for text content; beware CPU costs on tiny instances.

9. Offload CPU-bound work: Use worker threads or external services to avoid choking the main loop.

Guard the event loop like a hawk. Throughput depends on it.

How to Display Node.js Skills on Your Resume

11. PowerShell

PowerShell is a task automation and configuration shell from Microsoft, now cross-platform, ideal for scripting, orchestration, and system administration.

Why It's Important

It automates repetitive work, enforces consistency at scale, and glues services together with rich object pipelines.

How to Improve PowerShell Skills

Sharpen scripts and embrace modern tooling:

1. Use remoting and jobs: Run commands across servers, use background jobs for parallel work.

2. Leverage modules: Discover with Find-Module, install with Install-Module, and version-pin for reliability.

3. Write efficient pipelines: Prefer cmdlets over external executables; avoid unnecessary loops by composing filters well.

4. Develop with VS Code: PowerShell extension gives linting, debugging, and testing workflows. Prefer this over the legacy ISE.

5. Harden execution: Set appropriate execution policies, store secrets securely, and sign scripts where required.

6. Schedule automation: Use Task Scheduler or CI/CD to run scripts on cadence or on change.

7. Test and profile: Add Pester tests; use tracing and measure-command to catch slowness early.

8. Stay updated: Track new PowerShell releases for performance and compatibility improvements.

Readable, modular scripts with guardrails beat one-off commands every time.

How to Display PowerShell Skills on Your Resume

12. Linux

Linux is the backbone of modern servers: stable, secure, and flexible, with powerful tooling for networking and system administration.

Why It's Important

Most cloud and on-prem workloads run on Linux. Knowing it deeply pays off in reliability, performance, and lower operational toil.

How to Improve Linux Skills

Tune, secure, observe—then iterate:

1. Keep current: Regularly patch the kernel and packages; automate updates with maintenance windows.

2. Lightweight services: Prefer lean alternatives to reduce memory and CPU overhead.

3. Right-size swap: Adjust swappiness; use zram where appropriate instead of heavy disk swapping.

4. Watch the box: Tools like top, htop, iotop, nmon, and perf uncover CPU, IO, and memory pressure.

5. Firewall and hardening: Configure iptables or firewalld, enable fail2ban, and disable unused services and ports.

6. Backups and restores: Test restores—not just backups. Snapshots and offsite copies are your safety net.

7. Filesystem fit: ext4, xfs, or btrfs based on workload; mount options and journal tuning matter.

8. Network tuning: Optimize TCP settings, MTU, and IRQ affinity for high-throughput services.

9. Fast storage: SSDs (NVMe where possible) for IO-bound workloads; track queue depths and latency.

10. Database care: Align kernel and FS settings (e.g., noatime), and reserve memory for DB caches.

Good baselines and consistent configs prevent drift and strange gremlins later.

How to Display Linux Skills on Your Resume