Top 12 Lab Analyst Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive world of laboratory analysis, the skills you spotlight on your resume can tip the scales. Show a sharp blend of technical depth and clean, consistent lab practice. Demonstrate you can run complex assays, parse messy data, and keep quality high without drama.

Lab Analyst Skills

1. HPLC
2. GC-MS
3. PCR
4. ELISA
5. Spectrophotometry
6. Chromatography
7. Mass Spectrometry
8. Bioinformatics
9. NMR Spectroscopy
10. Flow Cytometry
11. Electrophoresis
12. LIMS

1. HPLC

HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) separates, identifies, and quantifies components in a mixture by pushing solvent under high pressure through a column packed with a stationary phase.

Why It's Important

It delivers precise, reproducible separations across pharmaceuticals, environmental testing, and biochemistry—crucial for purity, potency, and trace-level quantification.

How to Improve HPLC Skills

Sharper HPLC comes from disciplined method design and tidy execution.

1. Column choice: Match chemistry, dimensions, and particle size to your analytes and matrix. Smaller particles boost resolution but demand higher pressure.

2. Mobile phase tuning: Adjust organic content, pH, and buffers. Try gradients for tough separations. Watch ionic strength and solvent miscibility.

3. Temperature control: Stabilize column temperature to tighten retention times and improve peak shape.

4. Sample prep: Filter, dilute, and clean up (e.g., SPE, protein precipitation) to protect columns and reduce noise.

5. Flow rate: Balance analysis time and resolution. Slightly slower flows often improve separation quality.

6. Maintenance: Prime well, replace frits and guards, verify pump seals, and calibrate autosamplers on schedule.

Tune one variable at a time. Log everything. Good methods age well when documented.

How to Display HPLC Skills on Your Resume

2. GC-MS

GC-MS combines gas chromatography for separation with mass spectrometry for identification, allowing confident analysis of volatile and semi-volatile compounds.

Why It's Important

It pinpoints molecules in complex mixes with high specificity—vital for forensics, environmental monitoring, food safety, and industrial hygiene.

How to Improve GC-MS Skills

1. Sample cleanup: Use appropriate extraction, cleanup, and concentration to minimize matrix effects and carryover.

2. Column strategy: Select stationary phase and dimensions to match analyte polarity and volatility. Guard columns save headaches.

3. Carrier gas and oven program: Optimize flow and temperature ramps for crisp peaks without runaway run times.

4. Ion source and analyzer: Keep sources clean, verify tune and calibration, and set detector voltage for sensitivity without distortion.

5. Method validation: Establish accuracy, precision, range, linearity, LOD/LOQ, recovery, and robustness. Track QC with blanks, calibrators, and controls.

6. Data processing: Use reliable deconvolution and spectral libraries. Standardize integration rules and review flags.

7. Preventive care: Replace liners, septa, and o-rings routinely. Monitor vacuum health and leaks.

How to Display GC-MS Skills on Your Resume

3. PCR

PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) amplifies defined DNA sequences for detection, cloning, and analysis. Today that often means qPCR for quantification or digital PCR for absolute counts.

Why It's Important

It delivers sensitive, sequence-specific detection in diagnostics, research, and quality testing—fast, focused, and scalable.

How to Improve PCR Skills

1. Primer design: Aim for balanced Tm, appropriate length, GC content, and minimal secondary structure or cross-dimers.

2. Mg2+ and salts: Titrate MgCl2 and buffer conditions to balance specificity and yield.

3. Annealing temp: Run a gradient to find the sweet spot. Specificity first, then yield.

4. High-fidelity enzymes: For cloning or sequencing, switch to low-error polymerases; for tough templates, consider engineered mixes.

5. Template quality: Check purity and integrity. Remove inhibitors. Quantify before setup.

6. Hot-start chemistry: Reduce nonspecific amplification and primer-dimers at room temperature.

7. Ratios and volumes: Keep consistent reaction setups; adjust dNTPs, primer, enzyme, and template stepwise.

8. Controls: Include NTCs and positive controls every run. For qPCR, add standard curves and reference genes.

When results wobble, troubleshoot systematically: design, reagents, cycling, cleanliness. Small tweaks often fix big problems.

How to Display PCR Skills on Your Resume

4. ELISA

ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) detects and quantifies proteins, antibodies, antigens, and hormones using specific binding and enzyme-driven readouts.

Why It's Important

Sensitive, specific, and scalable—ELISA underpins diagnostics, biomarker verification, and quality testing across many sample types.

How to Improve ELISA Skills

1. Coating conditions: Titrate capture reagents and dial in incubation time and buffer for consistent binding.

2. Blocking: Test blockers (e.g., BSA, casein, specialized buffers) to cut nonspecific signal without suppressing the true signal.

3. Antibody titration: Optimize capture and detection antibody levels to maximize signal-to-noise.

4. Sample handling: Use appropriate diluents and keep within the dynamic range. Run serial dilutions when unsure.

5. Incubation and temperature: Adjust time and temperature, but avoid overdevelopment that blows out the curve.

6. Washing: Standardize wash volume, number, and soak time. Good washing lowers background dramatically.

7. Detection method: Choose colorimetric, fluorescent, or chemiluminescent readouts based on required sensitivity.

8. Curve fitting: Apply appropriate models (often 4PL/5PL). Use replicates and review residuals.

How to Display ELISA Skills on Your Resume

5. Spectrophotometry

Spectrophotometry measures how much light a solution absorbs at specific wavelengths, converting absorbance into concentration.

Why It's Important

It’s fast, reliable, and foundational—used for purity checks, kinetic assays, and concentration measurements across chemistry and biology.

How to Improve Spectrophotometry Skills

1. Calibration: Verify wavelength accuracy and photometric linearity with standards. Recalibrate on a fixed schedule.

2. Sample prep: Match blanks carefully, avoid bubbles and fingerprints, and select cuvette pathlengths that fit your range.

3. Method settings: Pick correct wavelength, bandwidth, and integration time. Confirm Beer's law linearity for your range.

4. Instrument care: Keep optics clean, follow warm-up routines, and document preventive maintenance.

5. Data handling: Use consistent baselining, replicate measurements, and track uncertainty.

6. Quality control: Run controls and participate in inter-lab comparisons when possible.

How to Display Spectrophotometry Skills on Your Resume

6. Chromatography

Chromatography separates mixture components by differing interactions with a stationary phase and a mobile phase—liquid or gas.

Why It's Important

It’s the backbone of purity profiling, contaminant tracking, and quantitative analysis across countless industries.

How to Improve Chromatography Skills

1. Column selection: Choose chemistry and dimensions that fit analyte polarity, size, and matrix complexity.

2. Sample integrity: Filter, dilute appropriately, and use cleanup (SPE, dSPE, QuEChERS) to preserve columns and improve signal.

3. Mobile phase and pH: Adjust solvents, buffers, pH, and ionic strength to sharpen peaks and improve selectivity.

4. Flow and temperature: Optimize to balance plate count, backpressure, and run time.

5. Method validation: Confirm performance characteristics and ruggedness; set system suitability criteria that actually protect quality.

6. Maintenance: Replace guards, flush salts, and troubleshoot pressure trends early.

7. Keep learning: New stationary phases, gradients, and workflows emerge constantly—stay curious.

How to Display Chromatography Skills on Your Resume

7. Mass Spectrometry

Mass spectrometry identifies and quantifies molecules by measuring mass-to-charge ratios of ions—alone or coupled with separation (LC/GC).

Why It's Important

It delivers structural clues, extreme sensitivity, and confident identification, even in ugly matrices.

How to Improve Mass Spectrometry Skills

1. Prepare clean samples: Reduce salts, lipids, and detergents. Targeted cleanup raises signal and protects sources.

2. Calibrate and maintain: Tune routinely, verify mass accuracy, clean sources, and monitor vacuum health.

3. Reagent quality: Use MS-grade solvents and additives to limit background and adducts.

4. Ionization strategy: Match ESI/APCI/MALDI to analyte properties. Adjust source temps, gas flows, and voltages methodically.

5. MS/MS optimization: Set collision energies and isolation widths for clean fragments and high S/N.

6. Data analysis: Standardize processing, library searching, and quant rules. Validate peaks, don’t just trust software.

How to Display Mass Spectrometry Skills on Your Resume

8. Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics blends biology, statistics, and computing to wrangle sequence data, expression profiles, and large-scale omics into meaningful results.

Why It's Important

Modern labs generate mountains of data. Turning that noise into decisions—markers, mechanisms, hypotheses—requires computational fluency.

How to Improve Bioinformatics Skills

1. Deepen coding: Grow comfortable in Python and R. Write reproducible scripts, not one-off hacks.

2. Know your tools: Learn common pipelines for NGS, alignment, variant calling, differential expression, and annotation.

3. Version control: Use Git. Track changes. Collaborate cleanly.

4. Data management: Organize metadata, enforce naming conventions, and document workflows.

5. Statistics and ML: Understand experimental design, multiple testing, and basic machine learning for classification and clustering.

6. Reproducibility: Containerize (e.g., Docker), use notebooks, and lock package versions.

7. Community: Read papers, discuss problems, and share solutions—your future self will thank you.

How to Display Bioinformatics Skills on Your Resume

9. NMR Spectroscopy

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) reveals molecular structure, dynamics, and environments by probing nuclei in a magnetic field.

Why It's Important

It offers unambiguous structural information, stereochemistry, and purity checks without destroying the sample.

How to Improve NMR Spectroscopy Skills

1. Sample prep: Use deuterated solvents, appropriate concentrations, and clean tubes. Add internal standards when needed.

2. Shimming and locking: Take time to achieve a homogeneous field; line shape tells the truth.

3. Acquisition parameters: Optimize pulse widths, relaxation delays, and number of scans to balance S/N and time.

4. Temperature control: Stabilize temperature for consistent chemical shifts and improved resolution.

5. Advanced experiments: Apply 2D methods (COSY, HSQC, HMBC) and selective decoupling to untangle crowded spectra.

6. Data processing: Zero-fill, apodize thoughtfully, phase and baseline correct. Keep processing reproducible.

How to Display NMR Spectroscopy Skills on Your Resume

10. Flow Cytometry

Flow cytometry measures characteristics of cells or particles in a fluid stream as they pass lasers, enabling multiparameter analysis at single-cell resolution.

Why It's Important

It rapidly profiles complex cell populations, tracks function and phenotype, and supports both research and clinical decisions.

How to Improve Flow Cytometry Skills

1. Sample quality: Prevent clumps, maintain viability, and standardize cell counts. Filters save time later.

2. Instrument QC: Perform daily checks with beads, verify PMT voltages, and maintain consistent settings.

3. Panel design: Choose fluorophores with minimal spectral overlap and match brightness to antigen density.

4. Controls: Use unstained, FMO, isotype (when appropriate), single-stain controls, and compensation controls.

5. Staining protocols: Optimize antibody concentration, incubation time, and temperature. Protect from light.

6. Gating strategy: Define a consistent gating hierarchy; automate where possible, but always review.

7. Data integrity: Track instrument drift, batch effects, and use robust file naming and metadata.

How to Display Flow Cytometry Skills on Your Resume

11. Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis separates DNA, RNA, or proteins by size and charge under an electric field, typically through gels.

Why It's Important

It’s straightforward, visual, and dependable for checking integrity, estimating size, and verifying purity.

How to Improve Electrophoresis Skills

1. Buffer and gel selection: Match buffer system and gel percentage to molecule size and resolution needs.

2. Sample prep: Clean up samples, use appropriate loading dyes, and avoid overloading wells.

3. Voltage and time: Lower voltage improves resolution; higher voltage speeds separation but can distort bands.

4. Temperature control: Prevent overheating—circulate buffer or pause runs if needed.

5. Staining and imaging: Pick stains for sensitivity and safety. Standardize exposure to compare lanes.

6. Equipment upkeep: Inspect trays, combs, and power supplies; replace worn cables and cracked tanks.

How to Display Electrophoresis Skills on Your Resume

12. LIMS

LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) manages samples, workflows, data, and reporting—central control for modern labs.

Why It's Important

It reduces manual errors, accelerates throughput, enforces compliance, and keeps your data traceable from sample receipt to final report.

How to Improve LIMS Skills

1. Tailor workflows: Configure fields, roles, and approvals to mirror real processes—don’t force-fit the lab to the software.

2. Instrument integration: Connect instruments for direct data capture. Kill manual transcription wherever possible.

3. User training: Offer role-based training and refreshers. Create quick-reference SOPs inside the system.

4. Interface clarity: Simplify screens, hide unused fields, and standardize naming so users move fast without errors.

5. Mobility and access: Enable secure access on the bench or in the field when it speeds decisions.

6. Automation: Use templates, barcode tracking, auto-calculations, and scheduled tasks to streamline routine work.

7. Security and compliance: Enforce permissions, audit trails, and e-signatures. Align with relevant standards and regulations.

8. Scalability: Plan for additional assays, users, and sites. Test performance with realistic data volumes.

9. Reporting and dashboards: Build clear, actionable reports and KPIs. Surface bottlenecks early.

10. Feedback loop: Gather user input, iterate configurations, and keep change logs so improvements stick.

How to Display LIMS Skills on Your Resume