How to describe student projects on your CV

Inventory work you can explain

List three to five activities that involved a specific task: a research assignment, society event, coding project, laboratory exercise, internship or part-time job. For each, note when it happened, who was involved, what you did and what you produced. These notes give you material to choose from before polishing the CV.

MIT's career guidance includes projects and unpaid activities among possible resume experiences. Use headings such as 'Academic projects', 'Internship experience' or 'Leadership and activities' to help the reader understand where the work happened. Include the project name, organisation or activity and the dates alongside your contribution.

Source for the published guidance: MIT CAPD: Crafting an effective resume.

Choose the project for the vacancy

A relevant project answers a question about the role. For a reporting internship, explain how you cleaned a dataset, checked assumptions and presented findings. For a customer-facing role, a society event may show enquiry handling and coordination. The project title alone rarely explains that connection; the action underneath it does.

Choose the part of the project that matters for this vacancy, then explain it in a few lines. For a data role, the cleaning method or modelling choice may be useful; for an event role, focus on planning and coordination. Include a short context note if you used a synthetic dataset or simulated client brief.

Make team contribution visible

Use 'built', 'tested', 'coordinated' or 'analysed' only for the part you performed. If a teammate built the model and you prepared the presentation, the presentation is your evidence. You can mention the team's broader output while separating it from your action. This gives interviewers an accurate route into the work.

Check whether numbers describe your work, the team or a forecast. A proposed cost reduction in a business case was not achieved by an employer. A mark may demonstrate assessed academic performance, but it does not establish customer impact. Keep each result tied to the setting where it happened.

Keep a small proof folder

Save a clean project summary, permitted screenshots, your contribution notes and a link to code or a portfolio if useful. Check sharing permissions before adding the link to a CV. A private university folder that requires a student login will not help an external reader, and a public folder may reveal teammates' details.

Do not upload assessment answers or team material you lack permission to share. A short explanation of the task and your method can be enough. Remove personal records from datasets. If you cannot show the original deliverable, prepare a separate, clearly labelled demonstration using invented data rather than exposing private information.

Test the entry aloud

Read each project bullet and explain it without looking at notes. You should be able to describe the task, your choices, a difficulty and the output. If a bullet contains a tool you only watched someone else use, revise the claim. Interview preparation can expose inaccuracies before an application leaves your hands.

Finish with a vacancy check: which requirement does each entry support, and where would another example help? Jobvance's student CV check can help organise that review. Read the wording beside the job description, choose the most relevant entries and approve the CV you want to send. Check any required professional experience separately.