Myth or Reality: Employers will contact your academic supervisor and past collaborators to acquire information about you Recently in a presentation about networking the presenter mentioned that it is important to maintain a good relationship with your past academic supervisors and collaborates (teammates) because employers (industry employer, not academic employers) will go contact these people to gain information about you, especially you are a recent grad with net zero industry experience.

Is this a common practice? Does anyone know if employers will actually go out of their way to contact your supervisors even your teammates?
In general, your supervisor will more likely be contacted if your graduate fellowship is listed as employment experience.  Background checkers will likely interpret your supervisor as a "boss" and contact them accordingly,  not to tease out the minutia of your research but to ensure such qualities as dependability, integrity, and punctuality.