Career-savvy counselors advise against posting anything ribald or questionable on your MySpace profile for one good reason: anyone can stumble across it. The next person to load your profile and see that drunken party picture or risque bathroom mirror pic could be your grandma, a student, a teacher or even a potential employer. While it may be cute and funny to your friends, it can be life-ruining if viewed by the wrong people, as illustrated by a recent ABC News piece on a would-be teacher who was denied a position because of her MySpace profile.

Given the liability that a public profile poses, you may want to avoid the following the next time you update your MySpace profile:

1. Drug or Alcohol Use. Whether you are of age or not, depictions of drug or alcohol use never go over well with employers or educators. Even if you are responsible and upstanding by day, a school board member or boss will never be able to forget the image of the party animal you are by night.
2. Risque Images. MySpace may not be the best place to launch your modeling career. Showing any amount of skin portrays you as licentious and, depending on your age, can be deemed child pornography.
3. Disgruntled Rants. Venting about your bad day at work or posting a diatribe against a hated teacher will never serve you well if viewed by the wrong eyes. Employers in particular frown upon negative depictions of the company and will usually take swift action to dissociate themselves form you.
4. Incriminating photographs. First of all, you should avoid criminal acts such as theft, vandalism and harassment anyway, but if you do decide to pull a prank that isn’t quite legal, you may not want to broadcast your guilt on the Internet. The evidence can be used against you in court and bar you from opportunity.
5. Profiles that aren’t private. The safest way to avoid prying eyes is to keep your profile private. It’s a simple measure that ensures that only your close friends view your profile, and as long as you don’t friend your supervisor at work on MySpace, you should be in the clear.

It’s best to remove all offensive images from your profile as soon as possible. Search engines often cache webpages, including some blogs and social networking profiles, so even if you remove something from your page it may still be accessible for months or even years. Another safety measure is to avoid revealing your identity by using a nickname or handle or simply omitting your last name — this helps protect against identity theft as well as career-damning revelations. Keep reading for more tips on making your MySpace layouts user-friendly and career-friendly.