POST WITH CAUTION

St. Paul, Minn. -- Worried that potential employers might peruse online postings at Facebook, Steve Lindgren used privacy settings to give only a limited circle of friends access to his profile, pictures and musings.

His friends will see that his favorite quote comes from Homer Simpson and that he makes a mean PB&J sandwich.

They'll see photos of his travels and "random partying." All college-humor type of stuff, Lindgren says, acknowledging that it's not anything he'd want a prospective employer to see.

St. Paul Pioneer Press/KRT

Online networking sites (like this fictional one) typically show a side of the user that he or she may not want employers to see -- but they are looking.

"I'm not ashamed of anything, but it would be easy to get a different perspective of who I am," said the 22-year-old St. Cloud State University senior who is interviewing for finance jobs. "If I am directing it toward my friends, employers are probably not going to be too impressed with the profile."

As more students and young job-seekers turn to social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster and Facebook to connect with friends and write about their personal lives, employers and recruiters are following right behind. They are tapping into Internet search engines to cull information about job candidates. And, in some cases, employers and recruiters are using the information to weed out candidates.

Three-quarters of 102 executive recruiters surveyed last fall by ExecuNet of Norwalk, Conn., said they use search engines to uncover information about job candidates. More than one-fourth said they have eliminated candidates because of what they found about the people on the Internet.

There's an explosion of personal material being launched into cyberspace by people who seemingly have no qualms about revealing details of their sexual escapades or not-so-hidden desires.

They'll post photos of drunken friends to their Web pages and to those of their friends. On one MySpace posting, a 19-year-old Wisconsin girl writes about her pastimes: "I def. like to party ... I don't smoke but I drink a lot ... like a lot."

In a few years, Internet searches on job candidates will become even more common, predicts Minneapolis employment attorney Tamara Olsen. She advises those who bare their souls -- and, um, other things -- online to consider the consequences.

"The Internet is like a billboard or painting on the side of a building," said Olsen, who advises companies on electronic communication issues. "But because people are doing the communicating from a computer in their bedroom, they think of the Internet as private. Right now we are in a funny place, where people are posting private things, and they have no idea how public it really is."

"Recruiters are using what is on their personal space to make professional decisions," she said.