Don’t wait until your employer asks if you’ve done right thing

As more companies consider establishing a vaccine mandate, here’s a new idea: At the top of your resume, put “FULLY VACCINATED.”

For all the world to see.

List it on applications, resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and anywhere else that’s appropriate. Doing so will make you stand out for all the right reasons.

For job seekers, letting potential employers know upfront that you are fully vaccinated could mean the difference between getting a job — or not.

According to ResumeBuilder.com, a recent survey of 1,250 hiring managers revealed that nearly 70 percent said they were more likely to hire prospects who indicated on their resume that they’ve been fully vaccinated.

What’s more, one-third of those hiring managers said they outright eliminated resumes that didn’t include vaccine status.

One reason employers with vaccine mandates favor candidates who proclaim their vaccine status in the application stage is that doing so completes an important step in the screening process.

Much like within our society, vaccination status has created a great divide for both employers and employees alike.

For one thing, the Biden administration’s mandate that federal workers and government contractors be vaccinated went into effect last week.

A similar OSHA rule requires employers with over 100 employees to get their workforce vaccinated or undergo at least weekly COVID testing.

And the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces employment non-discrimination laws, has decreed that asking

about vaccine status or documentation does not violate federal equal employment opportunity laws.

In other words, if a company has more than 100 employees, which is where the vast majority of jobs are, they’ll have to ask the question eventually.

So, why not offer your answer upfront?

If they already know you’re vaccinated

Revealing right away that you’ve had your COVID shots means they don’t have to ask. If they know you’re vaccinated, they’ll be more likely to offer you the job.

With that status clearly stated on your resume, HR

can freely proceed, knowing that your vax status won’t be an issue. As an added bonus, HR won’t need to be concerned about the hassles of paying for costly COVID testing, daily or weekly, that, as of now, employers are required to cover.

It will also speed up the hiring process if, after being considered for a job, you do agree to get vaccinated. These days, most companies don’t have the luxury of waiting for you to get vax No. 1 and No. 2, and then wait another two weeks for the vaccine to take full effect.

By then, they likely will have offered “your” job to someone else.

Can’t say that I’d blame them.

Know, too, that HR will

not be pleased that you agreed to get vaccinated only after you were offered a job, but you were unwilling to get the shots over the last 10 months or so.

Another wrinkle in this process comes from applicants who claim religious or health exemptions as reasons for not getting vaccinated.

Candidates can legally be asked questions about their religious affiliations to verify they are not fabricated and request doctors’ notes to validate that getting vaccinated would be a health care danger for you.

Or, you just might not be offered the job, and wonder why.

They are more likely to hire better-qualified candidates

Notably, a slight majority of hiring managers in the ResumeBuilder survey said they are more likely to hire better-qualified candidates, even if they are not vaccinated, as opposed to hiring less-qualified but vaccinated candidates, by a small

margin — 53 percent to 47 percent.

However, 34 percent of hiring managers at companies with vaccine mandates already in place say they are very likely to hire a lessqualified but vaccinated candidate over a morequalified but unvaccinated candidate.

Why is this important? Because being vaccinated allows you to apply for higher-level, better-paying jobs.

If you’re ready to start looking for a job, my message is simply this: Get vaccinated. It’s the right thing to do for your health. And the best way to get hired.

Knowing that you took the initiative to get vaccinated clearly gives you an advantage in the current job market. Why not take full advantage and tell the world?

Make it work for you.