MIT Resume Template
for Google Docs

The MIT Standard: CAPD Engineering Resume Guidelines

Whether you are applying for software engineering internships, lab research roles, quantitative finance desks, or hardware design fellowships, your resume needs to demonstrate deep technical mastery. At MIT, the Career Advising and Professional Development (CAPD) office outlines a clear visual and structural code designed to make your academic projects, lab research (UROP), and technical skills instantly scannable.

Your resume should place your technical skills block at the top or bottom, categorized logically, and use action verbs that emphasize engineering, optimization, and deliverables.

How to Organize Your MIT Resume

1. The Technical Skills Block

Do not list soft skills. Recruiters want to know what tools you can write, design, or run. Categorize your technical stack clearly:

• Languages: C/C++, Python, Java, Assembly, MATLAB, Julia, SQL
• Hardware & Lab: FPGA, Oscilloscope, PCB Layout (Altium), CAD (SolidWorks), Cleanroom microfabrication
• Frameworks & Software: TensorFlow, PyTorch, ROS, Git, Docker, SolidWorks

2. Experience & Lab Research (UROP)

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and lab fellowships are highly prestigious. List them alongside industry internships, using precise, metrics-driven bullet points:

• "Designed and programmed a firmware driver for an autonomous drone prototype using C++, reducing latency by 14%."
• "Simulated and modeled thermal distributions for a microfluidic chip, validated by experimental data."
• "Optimized database queries for a lab server handling 100K daily requests, speeding up API responses by 45%."

3. Technical Projects

For technical candidates, side projects and Course projects (like 6.033 or 2.007) are key differentiators. Create a section dedicated to your builds. Detail your specific contributions, and always link your GitHub repository or personal portfolio site.

4. Education

List your degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). State your Course number (e.g. "Course 6-3: Computer Science and Engineering") and graduation year. Mention relevant academic achievements, awards, or Course projects.

Visual Conventions for Technical Resumes

Our MIT Google Docs template is pre-structured to respect the visual standards expected by tech companies and national laboratories:

• Clean Sans-Serif or Classic Serif: Keep it clean with Arial, Helvetica, or Garamond at 10–11pt.
• Single Column Layout: Ensures that automated parser algorithms (ATS) do not scramble your skills and experience layout.
• Dates and Locations: Always right-aligned to create a neat horizontal grid.

FAQ — MIT Resume Template

Is this template suitable for academic/PhD applications?

Yes. While this template is optimized for industry and engineering roles, the structure works perfectly for academic applications. For PhD or postdoc roles, you can simply expand the template to two pages and add a section for Publications and Conference Presentations.

How do I open the template in Google Docs?

After checking out, you will receive a copy link. Clicking it will automatically save a duplicate of the file in your Google Drive, where you can modify and edit the document.

Does this template support automated screening systems?

Yes. The template avoids multi-column tables, graphics, headers, and text boxes, which are the main cause of parsing errors in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).