Should You Include Your Vaccination Status on Your Resume?

© Provided by Ladders

By Kyle Schnitzer, Ladders

• 1 out of 3 hiring managers will toss out resumes that don’t include an applicant’s vaccination status.
• Listing your vaccination status can give you an advantage — if you’re vaccinated.
• Some hiring agents will check your social media to see if you have an opinion on the topic.

If you’re one of the many workers planning on looking for a new job within the next year, should you consider putting your vaccination status on your resume?

It’s likely a question you will face during a job interview. Recent data compiled by The Ladders found that the number of job posts requiring vaccination status on applications has grown exponentially, jumping 5,000% since January.

That trend is expected to pick up after the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine in August, meaning those on the fence about getting the jab won’t have any grounds to stand on if they want to return to the office, especially if a company mandates vaccines.

As for job seekers, nearly 70% of hiring managers said they are more likely to hire someone who has already been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a recent survey. More than half of hiring managers said that at companies mandating vaccines, they’re more likely to hire a less qualified vaccinated candidate over a more experienced but unvaccinated candidate.

If you’re wondering whether you should put your vaccination status on your resume, consider this: About a third of hiring managers said they will automatically toss out resumes that don’t include the applicant’s vaccination status.

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Why you should include your vaccination status on your resume

Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of global outplacement and business at Chicago-based executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told NBC Chicago that workers looking to get ahead of the pack should consider letting employers know that they’re vaccinated.

“Vaccination status will certainly be a factor to hiring managers,” he said. “If they already know you are vaccinated, they can check off that question and will not need to worry about getting that candidate tested every week. It will speed up the hiring process if the HR department already knows in which bucket the candidate goes.”

Beyond letting companies know your vaccination status on your resume or professional profile, Challenger said that hiring authorities will check social media when vetting candidates.

“If a job seeker has posted anything that conveys their opinion of the vaccines, the company will find it,” he said. “It is more professional to be upfront about your status in your resume or on your LinkedIn profile than, say, sharing a meme.”

Read More: 5 Easy Steps to Improve a Resume

If you’re unvaccinated, it’s best to stay quiet

For those who haven’t received any doses of the coronavirus vaccine, it could make you stand out in a pack of resumes — and not for the reasons you hoped.

Michael Neese, CEO of InterviewMastery.com, recently told Yahoo! Finance that unvaccinated job seekers have to be careful and should consider avoiding including their vaccination status on their resumes.

“If you state that you are unvaccinated, that is potentially going to have an adverse impression on the resume reader,” he said. “Saying that you are fully vaccinated is kind of net positive. … But if you disclose that you’re unvaccinated, that could be negative. That could be a negative.”

Lorena Pabón, an HR generalist for National Airlines, said those job seekers should comb through a job description and research the company to see how they handled the pandemic.

“You don’t want to be in a company that doesn’t value the same things you do,” Pabón said in an interview with My Perfect Resume. “You must not only research the employer but also the industry; understand what the industry as a whole is doing in regards to COVID-19. While you’re looking for that information, you need to look for hints of how they handled the pandemic and safety in general. You don’t want to waste the recruiter’s time if you have all the qualifications they need, but in the end, you’re surprised when they say that getting vaccinated or wearing a mask is a requirement to get hired.”

Daisy Wright, found of the Wright Career Solution, told Forbes that she would advise applicants to not include their vaccination statuses on their resumes because it’s a personal item.

“We wouldn’t mention age, race, sexual orientation, or (dis)ability on a resume or LinkedIn profile, so I would treat one’s vaccination status the same way,” she said.

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