Updated September 19, 2026. Repository, licence and file details below were checked against the original sources on this date.
In short: Jake's Resume is a free, open-source LaTeX resume template written by Jake Gutierrez and published on GitHub at jakegut/resume under the MIT License. It is a dense, single-column, one-page layout with four sections in a fixed order — Education, Experience, Projects, Technical Skills — and no summary, photo, color or icons. Software engineers and CS students use it because it fits a lot of real content on one page and exports a text-based PDF that parsers can read.
What is Jake's Resume?
Jake's Resume is a single LaTeX file, resume.tex, that compiles into a one-page resume. The author is Jake Gutierrez; the file header credits him, states the MIT licence, and says the template is "based off of" an earlier LaTeX resume by Sourabh Bajaj (sb2nov/resume, also MIT-licensed, on GitHub since 2015). The repository describes itself modestly as "LaTeX template for my personal resume."
Where to get the original, and only the original:
- GitHub (canonical, maintained): github.com/jakegut/resume. The LICENSE file reads "MIT License, Copyright (c) 2020 Jake Gutierrez." The older address github.com/jakeryang/resume redirects here.
- Overleaf gallery: Jake's Resume on Overleaf, listed with Jake Gutierrez as author. The GitHub README marks this copy as "Not updated," and Overleaf shows it as last updated six years ago — fine to start from, but the GitHub file is the current one.
One number worth correcting: when we checked on September 19, 2026, GitHub showed 2,817 stars and 708 forks for jakegut/resume. You will see much larger star counts quoted on template-aggregator sites; we could not reproduce them. The template's real footprint is mostly invisible anyway — it spreads through Overleaf copies and forks, which no counter tracks.
We do not host or reproduce the template here. It is MIT-licensed, so you may copy and modify it, but the right place to get it is the author's repository.
Why do software engineers use Jake's Resume?
Because it solves the three problems a technical resume actually has: fitting on one page, making the first skim easy, and producing a PDF made of real text. The design choices in the file explain it:
- Density without clutter. Margins are pulled in by half an inch on each side and the body is set at 11pt on US letter, so a student with two internships and three projects still fits one page.
- A predictable skim path. Every entry is a two-line block: a bold first line with a right-aligned detail, then an italic second line with another — job title and dates over company and location for work, school and location over degree and dates for education. Section headings are small caps over a full-width rule. A reviewer finds company, title and dates in the same place every time.
- Projects as a first-class section. Each project heading carries its tech stack inline, which suits candidates whose best evidence is shipped code rather than job titles.
- Machine-readable output on purpose. The preamble sets pdfgentounicode=1 and loads glyphtounicode, with the author's comment that this is to "ensure that generate pdf is machine readable/ATS parsable."
- It is free and version-controllable. A plain-text .tex file lives happily in Git, diffs cleanly, and never locks you into a subscription.
There is also a social reason: it is the layout many engineering hiring managers have seen hundreds of times, so nothing about the format distracts from the content.
What sections does Jake's Resume have, and in what order?
Four sections, in this order: Education, Experience, Projects, Technical Skills. There is no summary or objective, and the header is just a centered name with one contact line.
| Part | What the template puts there | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Name in large small caps, then phone, email, LinkedIn and GitHub on one line separated by vertical bars | No address, no photo, no title line |
| Education | School and location, then degree and dates | First, as on most student and new-grad resumes; move it down once you have 2+ years of experience |
| Experience | Title, dates, company, location, then bullet points | Reverse-chronological |
| Projects | Project name with tech stack inline, dates on the right, then bullets | The section career changers and new grads lean on |
| Technical Skills | Four labelled lines: Languages, Frameworks, Developer Tools, Libraries | Plain comma-separated lists, no rating bars |
Reordering is a cut-and-paste of whole section blocks in the .tex file. Experienced engineers usually run Experience, Projects, Technical Skills, Education.
Is Jake's Resume ATS-friendly?
Mostly yes, by construction — but we have not run it through a parser benchmark, and you should test your own export rather than trust any site's "ATS score" for a template. What can be said from the file itself:
- In its favor: one column, real selectable text, standard section names, no text boxes, images, icons or skill bars, and the Unicode-mapping lines that keep characters from turning into garbage when text is extracted.
- Watch for: the two-sided rows (title left, dates right) are built with a LaTeX tabular, so a parser reads each as one line, such as a job title followed directly by its dates. Most handle that; a few may attach the date to the wrong field. The vertical bars in the contact line are read as literal characters. And if you delete the glyphtounicode lines or compile with an unusual engine and font, ligatures such as "fi" can extract incorrectly.
A two-minute test beats any claim: open your PDF, select all, paste into a plain-text editor, and check that every line reads in order with dates next to the right job. Then run the file through a free ATS resume checker. For what the often-quoted ATS numbers do and do not show — including the unsourced "75% of resumes are rejected" claim — see our ATS statistics source check.
What are the pros and cons of Jake's Resume compared with a resume builder?
Jake's Resume wins on cost, density and control; a builder wins on speed, tailoring and not needing LaTeX. The template gives you a layout — it does not help you write, target or check the content, which is where most resumes fail.
| Factor | Jake's Resume (LaTeX) | A resume builder |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, MIT-licensed | Often free to write, paid to download (true of OneTwo Resume) |
| Setup | Overleaf account or a local LaTeX install | Browser only |
| Editing | Edit markup; a missing brace breaks the build | Form fields |
| Layout control | Total, if you know LaTeX | Limited to the templates offered |
| Tailoring to each job | Manual: duplicate the file and rewrite | Usually assisted (keyword matching, bullet rewriting) |
| Word export | None — PDF only | Often available |
| Sections | Fixed until you edit the markup | Add or remove in the interface |
| Best for | Engineers and students comfortable with code | Everyone else, and anyone applying to many roles quickly |
Who should not use Jake's Resume?
Skip it if any of these is true:
- You are not applying for technical roles. Outside software, data and engineering, the Education-first, Projects-heavy structure answers questions nobody is asking, and the missing summary hurts.
- The employer asks for a Word document. Some recruiters and agencies still do; LaTeX gives you PDF only.
- You have 10+ years of experience. The template is built around one page. It can run to two, but the spacing was tuned for density, and a long career reads better with a short summary on top.
- You need a summary. Career changers, people returning after a gap, and senior candidates usually benefit from two or three lines of positioning. You can add a section, but then you are designing, not using a template.
- You do not want to debug markup. An unescaped ampersand, percent sign or underscore stops the compile. If that sentence is unfamiliar, a builder will save you an evening.
- You are in design or another visual field. There the resume is a portfolio piece, and a plain text layout undersells you.
How do you fill in Jake's Resume?
Open the template in Overleaf or clone the GitHub repository, then replace the sample content section by section. The order that causes the fewest broken builds:
1.Header. Swap in your name and the contact line. Keep links short (linkedin.com/in/you, github.com/you). Our guide to putting GitHub on a resume covers when that link helps and when it hurts.
2.Experience. Each job uses one heading command with four values — title, dates, company, location — followed by a bullet list. Three to five bullets per role; each one states what you built, with what, and what changed. See the Python developer resume example or the software engineer example for bullet patterns.
3.Projects. Name, stack, dates, then two to four bullets. Keep only projects you would happily explain in an interview.
4.Technical Skills. Keep the four labelled lines, and list only tools you would accept a question about. Our guide to hard skills for a resume explains how to choose them and how to prove each one in a bullet.
5.Education. Degree, school, dates. Add GPA or coursework only while you are a student or recent graduate.
6.Escape special characters. In LaTeX, the characters &, %, $, # and _ need a backslash in front of them. This is the single most common reason the file stops compiling.
7.Compile, then check the page count. If it spills onto a second page by a line or two, cut a weak bullet before you shrink the font. More on that trade-off in one page or two.
Leave the preamble alone — in particular the pdfgentounicode and glyphtounicode lines that keep the PDF readable by software.
Can you get the Jake's Resume layout in OneTwo Resume without LaTeX?
Not exactly, and we would rather say so. OneTwo Resume does not have a Jake's Resume clone. The closest templates are single-column and plain:
- Classic — single column, serif type, centered name, ruled section headings. The nearest in spirit.
- Compact — single column with tighter margins and spacing, sans-serif; the nearest in density.
- Basic — the free single-column template.
What differs: our section order is fixed as Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Projects, so an Education-first layout is not available; the typeface is not LaTeX's Computer Modern; and downloading a PDF requires a paid plan (pricing), whereas Jake's template is free end to end. What you get in exchange is the part LaTeX does not do: the AI resume builder rewrites bullets, an ATS score runs automatically, and tailoring to a job description takes minutes instead of a new .tex file.
A sensible split: if you know LaTeX and apply to a handful of engineering roles, use Jake's original. If you are applying widely, need Word output, or want help with the words rather than the layout, use a builder and pick a single-column template.
Frequently asked questions
Who made Jake's Resume?
Jake Gutierrez. The resume.tex header names him as author and the repository's LICENSE file carries his copyright notice dated 2020. The sample content uses the placeholder name "Jake Ryan," which is why the template is sometimes credited to the wrong name.
Is Jake's Resume free to use?
Yes. It is published under the MIT License, which allows use, copying, modification and redistribution, including commercially, provided the copyright and licence notice stay with the source file. Your compiled PDF is your own document.
Do I need to install LaTeX to use Jake's Resume?
No. Opening the template in Overleaf compiles it in the browser. A local install (TeX Live or MiKTeX) only matters if you want to keep the file in your own Git repository and build it offline.
Is Jake's Resume good for non-tech jobs?
Usually not. Its structure — Education first, a dedicated Projects section, four lines of technical skills, no summary — is tuned for software and engineering hiring. For other fields a standard reverse-chronological layout with a short summary serves better.
Can Jake's Resume be two pages?
It can; LaTeX simply flows onto a second page. But the template's spacing is tuned for a dense single page, and most people who use it are early-career. If you genuinely need two pages, a layout designed for that length will read better.
Does Jake's Resume include a summary section?
No. The original goes straight from the contact line to Education. You can add a section by copying an existing section block, but keep it to two or three lines so the one-page fit survives.