The newest thing employers are looking for isn’t your management skills, your technical expertise, or your ability to thrive under pressure. Sure, they want someone who can handle all the demands of the job, but first there’s something else they want to know:

Are you vaccinated?

More and more job postings are specifying that they want employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. And can you blame them? Vaccinated individuals are less likely to miss work due to mandated quarantining, less likely to get sick and need time off, and less likely to end up in the hospital on a company-sponsored health plan.

This may be a thorny question, and some people may feel a medical decision you’ve made is not a prospective employer’s business. There’s validity to that perspective, and you have every right to refuse to share that information with someone considering employing you… just be aware that the company has the legal right to make hiring decisions based on your vaccination status, and on the vaccination status of other applicants. Guess what: If you and your closest competitor have identical résumés, except the competitor shares that they’re vaccinated and you keep that information a secret, they will almost certainly get a call first.

And that’s not because the employer is trying to persecute the unvaccinated or push an agenda or control the population with secret microchips. It’s because a vaccinated employee is a more cost-effective one, and that’s just good business. That’s the decision reached by major employers, including J.P. Morgan Chase and Citibank.

I’ll be honest; it took me a while to get on board with putting vaccination status on client résumés. The résumé is supposed to be a tool to sell you as a strong candidate for employment; it’s not a medical chart, and you don’t need to reveal, explain, or justify your health decisions to anyone. But here’s the thing about résumés: the purpose of a résumé is to convince the reader you would be a good investment. When they know you’ve taken steps to safeguard your health, you’re telling them you’ve taken steps to safeguard their potential investment.

That’s why my advice these days is that if you’re vaccinated, state it directly on the résumé, especially if they ask for it on the job posting. Leave no room for doubt.

If you’re not vaccinated… well, just hope they don’t ask.

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