I can vouch for this personally as being true. I work at 2 different locations on the RIT campus. As fall comes every year, my employers are hiring new students as employees for the upcoming school year. And, they always ask me to pull up my facebook and check those student's profiles for inappropriate information.

Not only do employers not want to hire people with negative information on their profiles because this shows they may not be the most reliable workers, they are also wary of hiring said workers because this could possibly hurt the reputation of the company.

Since the current job market is very tough and jobs are harder and harder to find, it is really important to keep a clean slate open.

This... bothers me. I'll say it again, I am a Facebook addict and very nostalgic. I am not sure I would have it in me to go through my photos and detag the ones that COULD be deemed "inappropriate" by employers. Just couldn't do it! Also, some people legitimately do not have a Facebook, but may possess a reputation 10x worse than a candidate who does, and just because 1 photo is found of them drinking legally hurts their chances, is ridiculous.

Now, let me pose this scenario and tell me if you think this is a possible way to beat the system...

Say you put your RIT e-mail on your resume, what if you remove your RIT e-mail from your Facebook so that people cannot search for you by e-mail on Facebook. Then change your name, or remove your last name or whatever. Could employers who have no tie to any of your friends or networks even be able to find you? Thoughts?