Nearly half of recruiters surveyed said they consider material posted online about a candidate when making a decision on whether to progress to an interview.
The 49 per cent of those who admitting to googling' their candidates belied the fact that most (86 per cent) of recruiters use the internet to research' potential candidates.
As well, some 55 per cent believed candidates looking for vacancies in senior jobs should be wary of material posted online.
But interviews with 50 leading recruiters of senior executives also revealed those recruiting for IT positions were also far more likely (50 per cent) to warn their candidates about unprofessional internet postings than those recruiting for finance (17 per cent) or consulting (18 per cent).
And 80 per cent of those recruiting in the IT sector agreed that that they would conduct other research into a candidate, such as researching their past media coverage.
Positive coverage concerning the candidate came out top among 63 per cent of recruiters in terms of information researched online, while 51 per cent had had found bad news concerning candidates.
Professional internet postings on company websites were noted by 47 per cent and 43 per cent sought an impressive social network of contacts. Unprofessional postings or pictures rounded out the top five of candidate information found online with 31 per cent of respondents.
One respondent said anecdotally: "I didn't hire someone who had a professional CV but their Facebook page showed them getting up to all sorts of mischief. They had even slated their previous employer on Facebook and it showed they logged in for hours at a time during their working day."
Overall, the survey by UK recruitment website, Experteer.co.uk found online investigation had become a routine matter in recruitment for senior positions, coming in narrowly after consulting referees (88 per cent), which was top of the list of research techniques.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of recruiters conducting additional research employed a dedicated internal or external team to uncover additional material on candidates for top executive roles.
Torsten Muth, Experteer UK managing director, said: "It is important that senior executives seeking fresh pastures ensure their online persona matches their carefully crafted CV."
