Hunting for a new job? A CU researcher says your social media posts may affect your job prospects

In The NoCo

Hunting for a new job? A CU researcher says your social media posts may affect your job prospects

By In The NoCo,

Brad Turner, Ariel Lavery, Erin O'Toole

Published February 17, 2025 at 5:35 AM MST

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A middle-aged man faces the camera and smiles. He's wearing a black sweater over a white shirt and has a beard and glasses. — University of Colorado researcher Jason Thatcher studies how the things we post on our social media accounts might affect our search for a job. "What we've discovered over time is a lot of people misinterpret or misconstrue the things that we post, and so it's okay to be a little bit careful about what you post. Be measured about it."

In 2025, many of us are on social media 鈥� and lots of us are hunting for a new job.

If that sounds like your situation, a University of Colorado researcher says be thoughtful about what you post online. Because what you do on Facebook or Threads or BlueSky can change your odds of landing that new gig.

has been studying how hiring managers use social media to make decisions about candidates. And he found 60 percent of hiring managers decide who to interview or who to hire, in part, by checking out applicants鈥� social media accounts.

So how do your Facebook posts about politics affect your chances of landing your dream job? And is there anything you can do to make your social media accounts more appealing to a hiring manager?

Thatcher recently spoke with Brad Turner about what he鈥檚 observed. We鈥檙e listening back to that conversation today.

You can also check out his previous In The NoCo interview on how to keep 鈥渢echnostress鈥� from driving you crazy at work.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC鈥檚 new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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