Do you guys think/know if potential employers will look at your facebook when reviewing your application?

[Ben]

[Billy]

Yes

[joearnold00]

Yes and they will after they hire you as well.

[Kable Devidus]

If I were an employer I would.
I would want to know everything about my potential employees, after all, they represent the employer.

[Pat]

Yeah they do, but I think that setting your profile on private could avoid this or maybe if you used an alternate name to avoid this

[Donna]

I thought that as long as they are not on your friend's list they could not view your page/info. I'd look into your privacy settings so that nobody outside of your friend's list can view your page info, then I'd refuse any friend requests coming from your potential boss, boss, and even co-workers. No matter how close a co-worker may become to you as a friend in real life, you may want to keep your facebook page reserved for those outside of the workplace. An employer has ways of persuading co-workers to give up the skinny on their offices buds when it comes to privacy issues.

Just sayin'.....

[Casey]

Depending on the employer and the type of position you're applying for, they may not initially, but almost certainly will at some point in the application process. They will check your facebook, Linkein, Twitter, and any other public domain accounts you may have to see what type of person you are, possibly your political affiliation, the types of groups you belong to, and anything else they can use to determine if you're a good fit for their organization, or if you're a goofball that's into partying and bad behavior.

A lot of this information that we've put on the web is stuff that employers are not allowed to ask about any longer during an interview, like political views, sexual orientation, and age. But we've put all of that and more on our facebook pages for all to see. It is why extreme caution is advised when posting anything to your wall or commenting on other's posts, because even innocent comments may eliminate us from consideration for certain positions. Especially ones that have anything to do with finance, security, or health care. And the higher one is looking to go in an organization, the more likely they are to do a thorough internet search of potential employees.

The rule of thumb is to not post anything that you wouldn't want a prospective employer to see. I think that this is an area of growing concern and another reason why people are taking a careful look at their facebook privacy settings, among other things. We should all probably be a little more cautious with what we do online.