Will my prospective employer contact my current employer even before the interview?

It depends on your prospective employer. There are reasons to do so, and reasons not to do so.

If you ask them not to they shouldn’t. They usually ask if it is alright, especially if you are still employed there.

I highly doubt it.

Usually not. Checking references takes time. Most employers will wait to narrow down the candidates to the finalists.

There is no guarantee. Most potential employers, however, will not contact your current employer if you ask them not to, because your employer does not know you are looking.

Never. It violates the privacy of the candidate and is generally not very well regarded by the current employer.

The only time I could see it happening is if a candidate is on notice of an impending layoff or had arranged with a supervisor that the contact would be ok.

Yesterday I was called by an HR guy asking about my former boss, but since he is a former he no longer works at my company and that is ok

SRM

I’m in senior management for thirty years and I never heard anyone do this. I HAVE heard about cases where the applicant is from a place that the interviewer has a friend working at, and that friend gives the interviewer the low down about the applicant. It wouldn’t happen except for the coincidence that the interviewer has a good friend working at the place.

I do remember one time when I had an assistant controller in our affiliate in Canada. He had worked for me for almost eight years and when I hired him I told him that five years was about the right amount of time to work at this job before moving on to something with more responsibility.
It was a bit of a shock when the outside auditors for another company in Toronto called me to ask about him cause they had made him an offer and they were hoping he would accept it.

He’s on the phone less than two minutes later explaining what happened and that he had been in the office of the President for Canada, explaining the situation. He reported to me functionally, but not on a daily basis.

I gave him a great recommendation and told the guy checking the reference that my assistant had stayed there too long and needed more independence and responsibility.

that was december 1999 and he is still in that job.
SRM

What do you do then the ‘friend’ was the hiring manager of the CEO and called him. I had no idea the person knew my CEO. Is this even legal or a violation of my privacy by the company.

Now – they are starting to look for my replacement.