Top 12 Lab Technician Skills to Put on Your Resume
Lab technicians keep research humming and diagnostics honest. Quiet hands, sharp eyes, dependable results. If you want your resume to land where it should, show a skill set that spans techniques and judgment, precision and troubleshooting, documentation and safety. The list below spotlights the core tools and methods hiring managers expect to see, and ways to show you can make them sing.
Lab Technician Skills
- PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
- ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
- HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
- GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
- Spectrophotometry
- Western Blotting
- Flow Cytometry
- Microscopy (Confocal, Electron)
- Cell Culture
- Bioinformatics
- NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing)
- CRISPR-Cas9
1. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
PCR is a method for amplifying specific DNA fragments, turning tiny whispers of genetic material into loud, measurable signals for analysis.
Why It's Important
It transforms scarce DNA into enough product to detect, type, and study. Diagnostics, pathogen detection, genotyping, cloning, forensic work—PCR sits at the center.
How to Improve PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills
Small adjustments, big differences. Tune each element and the noise drops while the band of interest pops.
Template integrity: Start with clean, intact DNA. Avoid inhibitors; verify purity and fragmentation when in doubt.
Primer design: 18–24 nt, 40–60% GC, minimal secondary structure and 3' complementarity. Check specificity in silico before ordering.
Mg2+ sweet spot: Titrate magnesium (often 1.5–2.5 mM) to balance yield and specificity.
Annealing temperature: Set ~3–5°C below primer Tm, then fine-tune with gradients to sharpen bands.
Enzyme choice: Use high-fidelity polymerases for cloning and NGS prep; standard Taq for routine checks.
Cycle count: Fewer cycles curb artifacts. Run only as many as needed to see the target cleanly.
Template load: Typical ranges—1–10 ng plasmid, 10–100 ng genomic DNA. Too much template invites nonspecific products.
Additives when needed: DMSO (1–10%), betaine, or enhancers help GC-rich or structured templates behave.
Hot-start setups: Prevent early mis-priming; reduce primer-dimers and smears.
Controls and verification: Always include NTC and negative controls; confirm size by gel and, for critical work, verify sequence.
How to Display PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills on Your Resume
2. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
Plate-based detection of proteins, antibodies, hormones, and more. An enzyme-linked reaction turns binding events into measurable signal.
Why It's Important
Specific, scalable, and quantitative. ELISAs power diagnostics, biomarker tracking, and quality control.
How to Improve ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills
Signal up, background down. Reproducibility or bust.
- Titrate capture/detection reagents: Checkerboard titrations lock in optimal concentrations.
- Block effectively: Choose blocking buffers (e.g., BSA, casein, milk) based on matrix and target to curb nonspecific binding.
- Wash consistently: Standardize volume, cycles, and dwell time. Fresh buffer matters.
- Control incubation: Dial in time and temperature for each step; don’t guess, test.
- Substrate selection: Chromogenic for simplicity; chemiluminescent for higher sensitivity when low-abundance analytes lurk.
- Sample handling: Use proper collection tubes, minimize freeze–thaws, and dilute to land inside the linear range.
- Calibration: Verify pipettes and readers; run a full standard curve every time.
- Plate coating uniformity: Gentle agitation during coating helps even coverage and smoother CVs.
- Controls: Include blanks, negatives, and known positives; monitor drift with internal controls.
- Data treatment: Use appropriate curve fits (4PL/5PL) and inspect residuals before reporting.
How to Display ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills on Your Resume
3. HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
A high-pressure workhorse that separates complex mixtures so you can quantify, identify, and validate components with confidence.
Why It's Important
Method development, stability studies, impurity profiling, content uniformity—HPLC underpins pharmaceutical, environmental, and biochemical testing.
How to Improve HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills
Resolution, robustness, and repeatability—build them in.
Protect the column: Use guard cartridges, filter samples, and mind pH/solvent limits to extend life and consistency.
Smart sample prep: Protein precipitation, SPE, or dilution to fit the matrix; remove particulates to prevent pressure spikes.
Mobile phase mastery: Optimize organic/aqueous ratios, pH, and modifiers; degas and keep composition stable.
Flow and temperature: Tune flow rate and column oven temperature to sharpen peaks and improve reproducibility.
Detector alignment: Match detector type (UV/Vis, FLD, CAD, MS) to analyte; verify wavelength and response linearity.
System suitability: Track plate count, tailing, resolution, and %RSD before and during runs; act on drift.
Method validation: Assess specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, range, LOD/LOQ, and robustness; document thoroughly.
Routine maintenance: Replace seals, purge lines, change frits; keep logs to spot patterns before they become problems.
How to Display HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills on Your Resume
4. GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
Volatile and semi-volatile compounds get separated in the GC, then identified and quantified by the MS. High specificity, clean fingerprints.
Why It's Important
From environmental monitoring to forensics and flavor profiling, GC-MS delivers confident IDs and sensitive quantitation, even in messy matrices.
How to Improve GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) Skills
Keep the system clean, the method tuned, and the spectra crisp.
Prevent contamination: Regularly service injectors, liners, and transfer lines; trim columns when peaks broaden or tail.
Optimize GC conditions: Tune carrier gas flow, split/splitless mode, and oven programs to resolve coeluters and smooth peak shapes.
Sample prep that matches the matrix: Derivatize when needed, clean up extracts, and avoid active sites; consistent prep equals consistent results.
Column selection: Choose polarity, length, ID, and film thickness that fit your analytes and runtime goals.
Calibrate the MS: Perform mass axis and tune checks; verify sensitivity and resolution with standards at set intervals.
High-purity consumables: Ultra-high-purity gases and clean solvents reduce background and ghosts.
Library and quant workflows: Maintain spectral libraries; validate ion ratios and retention times; use appropriate internal standards.
How to Display GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) Skills on Your Resume
5. Spectrophotometry
Measures how much light a sample absorbs at chosen wavelengths. From concentration checks to enzyme kinetics, it’s quick and quantitative.
Why It's Important
Accurate absorbance leads to trustworthy concentrations and activity measurements. That’s the bedrock for downstream experiments.
How to Improve Spectrophotometry Skills
Reduce stray variables; keep optics honest; handle samples the same way every time.
Calibrate routinely: Verify wavelength accuracy, stray light, and photometric linearity with standards.
Prepare samples cleanly: Use matched, scratch-free cuvettes; filter or centrifuge to remove particulates; avoid bubbles at the beam path.
Mind the blanks: Use matrix-matched blanks and run them often; subtract properly to tame background.
Pick the right wavelength: Measure at or near λmax to lift sensitivity and selectivity.
Control timing and temperature: For kinetic reads or temperature-sensitive assays, standardize conditions.
SOPs and training: Document steps, pathlength, and dilution schemes; retrain when procedures change.
How to Display Spectrophotometry Skills on Your Resume
6. Western Blotting
Proteins get separated by size, transferred to a membrane, and probed with antibodies. A signal appears where your target sits.
Why It's Important
It verifies expression, size, and relative abundance. Useful for validation, quality checks, and mechanistic studies.
How to Improve Western Blotting Skills
Sharper bands, lower background, reliable quantification—treat each step as a lever.
Extract and protect: Choose lysis buffers suited to your target; use inhibitors and keep samples cold to prevent degradation.
Quantify accurately: BCA/Bradford assays ensure equal loading and honest comparisons.
Match gel percentage: Align gel % to target size; use fresh buffers and consistent run conditions.
Nail the transfer: Optimize time, current/voltage, and membrane choice (PVDF vs. nitrocellulose) based on protein size.
Block and probe wisely: Select blocking reagents that don’t mask epitopes; titrate primary/secondary antibodies and control incubation times.
Detection strategy: Chemiluminescence for sensitivity; fluorescence for multiplexing and wider dynamic range.
Use proper controls: Include loading controls and, when possible, total protein normalization; run positive/negative controls.
Troubleshoot methodically: Address high background (blocking, washes), weak signal (antibody, transfer), or smearing (sample prep).
How to Display Western Blotting Skills on Your Resume
7. Flow Cytometry
Cells in suspension fly past lasers; detectors read scattered light and fluorescence. You profile populations, sort rare cells, and map phenotypes quickly.
Why It's Important
High-throughput single-cell data informs diagnostics, immunophenotyping, and functional assays. Speed plus depth.
How to Improve Flow Cytometry Skills
Good data starts before the instrument sees a single cell.
Single-cell suspensions: Disaggregate gently, filter, and use viability dyes; dead cells lie and clog.
Antibody titration: Optimize each fluorophore–antibody pair; more isn’t better if spillover balloons.
Essential controls: Include unstained, isotype (when appropriate), FMO, and compensation controls; standardize gates across runs.
Compensation done right: Build compensation matrices from single-stained controls and verify with beads or cells.
Instrument QC: Daily startup beads, voltage checks, and cleaning cycles keep performance tight.
Data hygiene: Exclude debris, doublets, and aggregates; document gating hierarchies for reproducibility.
How to Display Flow Cytometry Skills on Your Resume
8. Microscopy (Confocal, Electron)
Confocal microscopy stacks optical sections for crisp 3D images with selective fluorescence. Electron microscopy—SEM and TEM—dives to nanoscale detail with electron beams that reveal ultrastructure.
Why It's Important
When subcellular architecture or fine morphology matters, these tools expose what light microscopy can’t touch.
How to Improve Microscopy (Confocal, Electron) Skills
Sample prep and instrument tuning make or break image quality.
Confocal Microscopy:
Laser and pinhole balance: Use the lowest laser power that delivers adequate signal; adjust pinhole for resolution vs. brightness trade-offs.
Fluorophore planning: Select labels with minimal spectral overlap; apply proper sequential scanning when channels bleed.
Prep matters: Fixation, permeabilization, and mounting media quality drive signal stability and morphology integrity.
Electron Microscopy:
Contrast and staining: Apply heavy metal stains appropriately; ensure consistent postfixation for reproducible contrast.
Sectioning finesse: For TEM, aim for 60–90 nm ultrathin sections; keep knives sharp and support films clean.
Dose discipline: Minimize beam exposure to protect delicate samples; use low-dose strategies and drift correction.
General Tips:
Calibrate and maintain: Regular checks of alignment, stage movement, and optics keep instruments honest.
Standardize: Record settings, refractive indices, and acquisition parameters so images can be reproduced and compared.
Keep learning: Image processing workflows (deconvolution, denoising) evolve; revisit them often and validate results against controls.
How to Display Microscopy (Confocal, Electron) Skills on Your Resume
9. Cell Culture
Growing and maintaining cells under controlled conditions. Sterility, consistency, and gentle handling keep cultures healthy and representative.
Why It's Important
Drug screening, mechanism studies, biologics production, vaccine development—cell culture is the chassis that carries countless experiments.
How to Improve Cell Culture Skills
Clean technique and careful observation prevent headaches later.
Aseptic discipline: Work in clean hoods, flame or swap tips appropriately, and plan workflows to minimize traffic in and out of sterile areas.
Right environment: Match temperature, CO2, humidity, and media composition to the cell line; monitor incubator logs.
Daily checks: Observe morphology, confluence, and contamination; change media on schedule and respond to pH shifts.
Passage at the right time: Subculture before overconfluence; use appropriate dissociation reagents and minimize mechanical stress.
Authenticate and screen: Verify cell line identity (e.g., STR profiling) and test for mycoplasma regularly.
Document everything: Record passage numbers, split ratios, media lots, and deviations; traceability saves projects.
How to Display Cell Culture Skills on Your Resume
10. Bioinformatics
Computational analysis of biological data—genomes, transcripts, proteins. Turning raw files into insight with scripts, pipelines, and stats.
Why It's Important
Modern labs generate torrents of data. Bioinformatics skills let you process, visualize, and interpret it without bottlenecks.
How to Improve Bioinformatics Skills
Practice, projects, and good habits beat theory alone.
Pick a language and get fluent: Python or R for data wrangling, visualization, and automation; write modular, readable code.
Understand core algorithms: Alignment, assembly, variant calling, clustering—know what they assume and when they fail.
Work on real datasets: Public repositories offer plenty; build end-to-end pipelines and document them.
Version control: Track changes with git; keep repositories tidy and reproducible.
Reproducibility: Use environments/containers and workflow managers (e.g., Snakemake, Nextflow) to lock down dependencies.
Data ethics and security: Respect privacy, handle identifiers carefully, and comply with data governance rules.
How to Display Bioinformatics Skills on Your Resume
11. NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing)
High-throughput sequencing of DNA or RNA for genomes, exomes, amplicons, and transcriptomes. Massive data, fast turnarounds.
Why It's Important
It unlocks diagnostics, pathogen surveillance, pharmacogenomics, and discovery science with depth that older methods can’t match.
How to Improve NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) Skills
Quality in, quality out—library prep and QC decide the outcome.
Start with excellent input: Verify integrity (e.g., RIN/DIN), remove inhibitors, and quantify with dye-based assays when possible.
Library prep discipline: Follow molar inputs, control fragmentation and size selection, and minimize PCR cycles to limit bias.
Right depth and coverage: Match read length, depth, and pairing to the application; plan for duplicates and dropout.
QC checkpoints: Assess libraries by fragment analysis and qPCR; analyze raw reads with tools like FastQC and aggregate with MultiQC.
Instrument care: Maintain optics and fluidics; track run metrics and troubleshoot trends early.
Bioinformatics readiness: Standardize alignment/variant-calling pipelines; include controls and reference materials to verify performance.
Documentation: Record kit lots, barcodes, pooling schemes, and run settings to support reproducibility and audits.
How to Display NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) Skills on Your Resume
12. CRISPR-Cas9
Programmable genome editing using a guide RNA to direct Cas9 to a target site, where the nuclease cuts DNA and enables precise changes.
Why It's Important
Fast, targeted gene edits for functional studies, model generation, and, increasingly, therapeutic development.
How to Improve CRISPR-Cas9 Skills
Boost efficiency, tame off-targets, and validate thoroughly.
Thoughtful gRNA design: Aim for high on-target scores and minimal off-target risk; avoid SNPs in the target region.
Cas variant choice: Consider high-specificity Cas9 variants or orthologs (e.g., eSpCas9, HypaCas9, Cas12a) to reduce collateral cuts.
Delivery strategy: Select plasmid, RNP, or viral delivery based on cell type and aim; RNP often reduces off-target windows.
Temperature and timing: Align culture conditions with nuclease activity windows; transient expression can help control edits.
Dual-guide or paired nickase: For deletions or greater specificity, use two guides or nickase pairs to require cooperative targeting.
HDR optimization: For precise edits, synchronize cells if appropriate, supply high-quality donor templates, and time inhibitors/enhancers judiciously.
Screen and confirm: Use T7E1, amplicon sequencing, or ddPCR to quantify editing; sequence clones to confirm on-target accuracy.
Off-target assessment: Check predicted sites and, for critical work, apply unbiased methods; verify phenotype matches genotype.
How to Display CRISPR-Cas9 Skills on Your Resume
