IT Support Skills for CV

Hardware troubleshooting is the hands-on foundation of any IT support role. It involves systematically diagnosing problems with desktops, laptops, monitors, printers, and peripheral devices to determine whether the issue is hardware-related or software-related. A competent IT support technician follows a structured approach, starting with the most common causes and working through to component-level diagnosis. Employers expect you to handle everything from a laptop that will not boot to a printer producing garbled output, and to resolve these issues with minimal disruption to the user.

The range of hardware you encounter depends on the environment. In a corporate setting, you will work with standardised builds of business laptops, docking stations, dual monitors, VoIP phones, and networked multifunction printers. You need to be comfortable replacing RAM, swapping hard drives for SSDs, reseating cables, and running built-in diagnostics from manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Understanding warranty processes and knowing when to escalate to vendor support rather than attempting a repair yourself is equally important.

On your CV, go beyond simply listing hardware troubleshooting as a skill. Specify the types of equipment you have supported, the volume of devices you managed, and any migration or deployment projects you contributed to. For example, state that you diagnosed and resolved hardware faults across a fleet of 300 Dell OptiPlex workstations and 200 HP EliteBook laptops, maintaining a same-day resolution rate of 90% for priority hardware issues.

Active Directory is the backbone of identity and access management in most enterprise Windows environments. IT support staff use it daily to create and disable user accounts, reset passwords, manage security group memberships, and apply group policies that control what users can access across the network. Understanding the hierarchical structure of organisational units, domains, and forests is essential for anyone working in a corporate IT support role.

Beyond basic account management, competent IT support technicians understand how Active Directory integrates with other systems. This includes single sign-on configurations, Azure AD synchronisation for hybrid cloud environments, and the relationship between AD accounts and Microsoft 365 licensing. You should also understand how group policies push settings to workstations, including drive mappings, printer deployments, and security restrictions. Employers value support staff who can troubleshoot login failures, account lockouts, and permission issues without escalating every query to a systems administrator.

When presenting this skill on your CV, specify the size of the Active Directory environment you supported and the tasks you performed regularly. For example, you might state that you managed Active Directory accounts for 1,200 users across 3 organisational units, processing an average of 20 account creation, modification, and deactivation requests per week with 100% compliance to the company's joiner-mover-leaver process.

Ticket management systems are the operational backbone of any IT support team. Platforms like ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Freshdesk, and Zendesk allow support staff to log user issues, categorise and prioritise them, track progress through to resolution, and maintain a complete audit trail of every interaction. Employers expect IT support candidates to be proficient with at least one major ticketing platform and to understand the workflow from ticket creation through escalation to closure.

Effective ticket management goes well beyond simply logging calls. A skilled support technician writes clear, detailed ticket notes that allow any colleague to pick up the case and continue working on it. They correctly categorise tickets by type and priority, meet response and resolution SLA targets, and use the knowledge base to link related incidents. Understanding the difference between incidents, service requests, and problems under ITIL frameworks shows employers that you grasp the operational structure behind IT service delivery.

On your CV, name the specific ticketing systems you have used and include metrics that demonstrate your efficiency. For example, state that you managed an average of 35 tickets per day in ServiceNow, achieving a first-contact resolution rate of 78% and consistently meeting the 4-hour response SLA for priority 2 incidents. Mentioning any contributions to improving ticket workflows or creating knowledge base articles adds further value.