Awesome PhD CV
Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection.
A curated collection of LaTeX CV/resume templates for PhD students, postdocs, and researchers. Covers three distinct use cases: ATS-safe industry resumes (Jake's format), high-density two-column resumes (Deedy format), and full multi-page academic CVs (Awesome-CV format).
What This Project Provides
Installation & Setup
Prerequisites
Install a full TeX distribution:
For XeLaTeX templates (Awesome-CV, Deedy), ensure font packages are available:
Clone the Repo
Template 1: Jake's Format (Industry / ATS-Safe)
File: jakes-format/resume.tex
Engine: pdfLaTeX — no custom fonts, no multi-column, passes ATS parsers at Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft.
Compile
Key Commands in Jake's Format
Full Minimal Example: Jake's Format
Template 2: Awesome-CV Format (Academic / Faculty Applications)
Directory: research-cv/
Engine: XeLaTeX
Structure: Modular — each section lives in cv/ subdirectory.
Compile
Directory Layout
Main File Structure (cv.tex)
Section File Examples
cv/education.tex
cv/publications.tex
cv/honors.tex
Template 3: Deedy Format (Two-Column, High Density)
File: deedy-format/resume.tex
Engine: XeLaTeX
Note: Requires deedy-resume.cls from deedy/Deedy-Resume.
Compile
Key Commands
Core Insight: Academic CV → Industry Resume Conversion
The Mindset Shift
What to Keep, Cut, and Reframe
Tailoring Projects Per Application
Common Patterns
Adding GitHub Stars to Entries (Any Template)
Hyperlinks in PDFs
Controlling Page Breaks in Awesome-CV
Custom Accent Color in Awesome-CV
Troubleshooting
XeLaTeX: Font Not Found
Fix:
Or inside the .cls file, comment out \newfontfamily lines for missing fonts and substitute system fonts.
pdfLaTeX: Undefined Control Sequence \resumeSubheading
Fix: Ensure all custom \newcommand definitions appear in the preamble before \begin{document}. Jake's template is self-contained — do not split across files without copying the command definitions.
ATS Rejects Resume (No Text Extracted)
If an ATS returns your resume blank:
- Switch to
jakes-format/(pdfLaTeX, no custom fonts). - Remove
\includegraphics(profile photos). - Avoid
tabular-heavy layouts; use plainitemize. - Test extraction:
pdftotext resume.pdf -should return readable text.
Overleaf Compilation
- Jake's format: set compiler to pdfLaTeX in Overleaf settings.
- Awesome-CV and Deedy: set compiler to XeLaTeX.
- Upload the
.clsfile alongside.texif Overleaf can't find it.

