Harvard Resume Template: The Format and 6 Filled Examples

By Mustafa Tarabya, founder of CVBooster · Published 2026-10-25 · Updated 2026-10-25

7 min read

The Harvard resume template is a one-page, single-column, reverse-chronological resume with four sections in a fixed order: Education, Experience, Leadership and Activities, then Skills and Interests, with no photo, no summary and no graphics. The one constraint is the order: Education sits on top, which suits students and recent graduates and needs adjusting after a few years of work. The template comes from Harvard's Mignone Center for Career Success, which offers editable Word and Google Docs versions. Six filled examples follow. Written by Mustafa Tarabya, who hired for his own company, read every application himself and now writes CVBooster's guides.

The Harvard template does not make you look like you went to Harvard. It makes you look like someone who read the instructions, which in a pile of two-column resumes with skill bars is a surprisingly rare look.

A filled Harvard resume template for a student

This is the layout as the Mignone Center's own sample uses it: name centered, one contact line, Education first, then Experience, Leadership, and Skills and Interests.

Every line is a fact with a place and a date. That is the whole style, and it is why recruiters in finance, consulting and law know it on sight.

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The Harvard resume format, section by section

Heading. Name in larger type, centered, with address, email and phone on one line below. Harvard's sample adds a margin note to "Always use your @college email" while you are a student.

Education. School, city, degree and graduation month, GPA if it helps, and an optional line of relevant coursework. Our guide to relevant coursework on a resume shows when that line earns its place.

Experience. Employer and city on one line, title and dates on the next, then two to four bullets or a short paragraph. Harvard allows either form; pick one and keep it throughout.

Leadership and Activities. Clubs, teams, volunteering and student government, written the same way as jobs.

Skills and Interests. Technical skills, languages, and two or three real interests.

The Mignone Center gives the formatting rules in plain words: "Use consistent spacing, underlining, italics, bold, and capitalization for emphasis" and "Within headings, list information in reverse chronological order (most recent first)".

Harvard resume template for a recent graduate

When to move Education below Experience

After two or three years of full-time work, your jobs say more than your degree. Keep everything else about the Harvard format and move Education under Experience. The style survives; only the order changes.

Harvard Business School style resume for an MBA applicant

Business school applicants use the same skeleton with tighter, result-first bullets, because admissions readers compare hundreds of one-page resumes.

Yale and other Ivy League resume templates

Yale's Office of Career Strategy and MIT's Career Advising and Professional Development publish their own samples, and they follow the same logic as Harvard's: one page, one column, reverse chronological, no photo, education near the top for students. A "Yale resume template" or "Princeton resume template" is the Harvard format with small differences in heading style. Pick whichever sample your own career office provides, because the recruiters who visit your campus know that one.

Harvard resume template for a career changer

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Where to get the Harvard resume template

Download the official versions from the Mignone Center's resume page, which links editable Word and Google Docs files under its samples. Avoid third-party "Harvard" files that add color bars or photos; at that point it is not the Harvard format any more. If you want the same clean layout with the content tailored to each advert, CVBooster lets you fill any of the 99 templates free after you sign in and shows your ATS score and gap list; the PDF and Word download is Pro.

For the general rules this format follows, see our chronological resume format guide and how long a resume should be.

If your bullets carry large figures, our guide to the abbreviation for million shows the consistent way to write them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Harvard resume format?

It is a one-page, reverse-chronological resume in a single column, with Education first and then Experience, Leadership and Activities, and Skills and Interests. It has no photo, no graphics and usually no summary. Harvard's career center publishes it with editable Word and Google Docs versions for students.

Is the Harvard resume template good for ATS?

Yes. It is plain text in one column with standard headings, which is the layout tracking systems read most reliably. Keep it that way: do not add tables, text boxes or columns when you edit it, and export it as a PDF or Word file as the employer asks.

Can I use the Harvard resume template if I did not go to Harvard?

Yes. It is a format, not a credential, and recruiters recognize it from many schools. Replace every Harvard detail with your own and keep the order, spacing and one-page length. Nobody will assume anything about your school from the layout.

Does the Harvard resume template have a summary section?

The official sample does not include one, because students lead with Education. Experienced applicants sometimes add a two-line summary under the heading. If you add one, keep it specific to the job and short enough that Experience still starts in the top half of the page.

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