Resume template · Updated October 2026
Resume template for PhD holders
Short answer
FAANGPath suits a Ph.D. moving into industry R&D: skills print first, then doctoral research written as a job, then the degree, with a short titled list of selected publications at the end. The fictional sample is a materials science Ph.D. applying for battery scientist roles. This is a resume rather than a full academic CV, so it stays at one or two pages.
Download the PhD sample
Lucas is a fictional materials scientist. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why FAANGPath suits a PhD resume
FAANGPath is built for technical candidates who want methods and instruments read before jobs: it prints skills above experience and education after projects, under plain full-width heading rules. For a Ph.D. leaving the lab, that order turns five years of research into evidence an R&D manager scans first.
Second choice: Henrietta. Henrietta prints education straight after experience, a better fit for policy, consulting or teaching-focused roles where the doctorate itself is the headline credential.
What goes in each section, in FAANGPath's order
FAANGPath prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Translate the dissertation into a job: the material or system, the techniques and the kind of role you want. Save the academic framing of your research question for the cover letter.
- Skills. Group by what a lab manager hires for: synthesis, testing, characterization instruments and code. FAANGPath prints labelled rows with a dot after each label, so instruments and software can each have a row.
- Work Experience. Write the Ph.D. as a job under your real appointment title (graduate research assistant) with four or five bullets on results, budgets and people trained. An industry internship or collaboration sits beside it, newest first.
- Education. Ph.D. first with the dissertation title in the detail line, then earlier degrees. The advisor's name is optional on an industry resume; include it if they are well known in the field you are applying to.
- Selected publications. A long publication list does not belong here. Pick two to four papers, posters or patents that match the job and put them in a titled extra list; Resumity prints it as one list at the end of a resume-style page, not as a full academic CV.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Lucas Ferreira
Materials Scientist, Ph.D., Battery Electrodes and Characterization
Ann Arbor, MI | lucas.ferreira@example.com | (734) 555-0108 | linkedin.com/in/sample-lucas-ferreira
Materials scientist with a Ph.D. on silicon-rich battery anodes and five years of hands-on synthesis, cell building and characterization. Designs experiments that answer one question at a time and writes them up for engineers as well as reviewers. Looking for a cell development or materials R&D role.
Experience
Graduate Research Assistant (Ph.D. research), Great Lakes Technological University, Materials Science Department, Ann Arbor, MI (09/2021 to 08/2026)
- Developed a binder coating that kept about 80% of capacity over 500 cycles in coin cells, against about 60% for the lab baseline.
- Built and tested more than 300 coin and pouch cells and wrote the lab's cell assembly procedure.
- Ran SEM, XRD and impedance measurements and automated the analysis in Python.
- Managed the shared glovebox budget and trained six new students on its safety rules.
- Co-wrote quarterly progress reports for an industry-funded project with a battery manufacturer.
R&D Intern, Northstar Energy Materials, Troy, MI (05/2024 to 08/2024)
- Screened eight electrolyte additives in pouch cells and summarised the results for the cell team.
- Wrote the test plan template the team adopted for later additive studies.
Selected publications
- Ferreira, L., Okoye, D., Brandt, M. "Crosslinked binder coatings for silicon-rich anodes." Midwest Journal of Battery Science, 2026.
- Ferreira, L., Brandt, M. "Impedance signatures of binder failure in silicon anodes." Midwest Journal of Battery Science, 2025.
- Ferreira, L. Poster: binder coatings for high-silicon anodes. Great Lakes Electrochemistry Symposium, 2024.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Materials Science and Engineering, Great Lakes Technological University (08/2026). Dissertation: Polymer binder coatings for silicon-rich lithium-ion anodes
Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering, Lakeview State University (05/2021)
Skills
Electrode slurry formulation, Coin and pouch cell assembly, Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Design of experiments, SEM, XRD, Python (pandas, SciPy), Glovebox operation, Technical writing, Mentoring junior researchers
How to make the sample yours
Cut the CV down to selected work
Keep the publications that show the methods the job asks for. Your full list can live on a scholar profile or personal page linked from the header.
Turn chapters into results
Each dissertation chapter usually holds one result an engineer cares about: a material that lasted longer, a faster test, a model that predicted failure. Write those as bullets.
Name only the instruments you ran yourself
Hiring managers want to know you can operate the SEM, not that your group owned one. Leave out techniques a collaborator or core facility ran for you.
Show your defense date honestly
Before you defend, write "Ph.D. expected" with the month. If your department calls students who passed qualifying exams candidates, you can use that word; otherwise stick to "expected".
Adapt it for a non-lab doctorate
A humanities or social science Ph.D. moving into policy, UX research or analytics swaps instruments for methods (archival research, survey design, regression) and keeps the same structure.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- Ph.D. Materials Science
- lithium-ion batteries
- electrode formulation
- cell assembly
- electrochemical characterization
- SEM
- XRD
- impedance spectroscopy
- design of experiments
- Python
- technical reports
- R&D
- peer-reviewed publications
Mistakes to avoid
- Pasting the academic CV in full. Teaching evaluations, every conference abstract and committee service push your best results onto page three.
- Leaving the doctoral years under education only. Five years of research is work experience and should read like it.
- Lab jargon and internal sample codes that a hiring manager outside your group cannot decode.
- Calling a paper published while it is in review. Write "under review" and the year.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
Frequently asked questions
Should a PhD use a resume or a CV for industry jobs?
A resume of one or two pages, unless the posting asks for a CV. Faculty jobs and some research institutes want the full academic CV instead.
How do I list my PhD on a resume?
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), field, university, city and completion month, with the dissertation title in the detail line. It goes above your earlier degrees.
How many publications should I include on an industry resume?
Two to four that relate to the job, in a titled list near the end. Link your full list from the header for anyone who wants more.
Can I list PhD research as work experience?
Yes. Use your appointment title, such as graduate research assistant, with the department and dates, and write results-focused bullets as you would for any job.
How do I list a PhD I did not finish?
If you left with a master's, list the master's and describe the research years as experience, without implying the doctorate. If you are still enrolled, give the expected month.
Will applicant tracking systems read this FAANGPath PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 5 section headings and all 7 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.
Guides and templates for this resume
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