Many people have grown so accustomed to having their morning coffee or soda that they don’t even consider damaging effects caffeine has on body. On contrary, most will tell you that they NEED their jolt to get them moving in morning or to keep them upright throughout day. Caffeine is present not only in coffee, but also tea, soda, chocolates and in certain pain relievers, such as aspirin or acetaminophen. It is also sometimes used in combination with an antihistamine to overcome drowsiness caused by antihistamine.

If you don’t think it’s addicting, try going off caffeine, cold turkey. See if you don’t have a headache for two to nine days. That’s caffeine withdrawal! You don’t need to be a coffeeholic to experience negative physical symptoms. Even as little as one to two cups a day can negatively affect you.

So how do you stand apart from everyone else? Your résumé.

Your telecommute résumé first and often only document a potential employer has to make a hiring decision with. Here are some tips specifically for your telecommute résumé to keep it on employer’s desk and out of “file number 13”.

I have consulted with telecommute résumé expert Jennifer Anthony of RésuméASAP to get a list of top five telecommute résumé mistakes. Here they are!

1. Wild designs or frilly fonts.

If you want to be taken seriously for consideration, avoid using cursive fonts or cutesy clip art. Leave this to personal use; it does not belong on business correspondence. Also, check your e-mail signatures. You don’t want to send your résumé out and then sign your name “Mommy to Sean and Sissy” with little angel graphics around their names.

2. Résumé templates.

“I know for a fact that recruiters hate templates and would rather rip their hair out than read templates”, Jennifer Anthony

Recruiters and hiring managers spend their day (often overtime) sorting through hundreds of résumés. Templates are hard to read, and design elements often don’t show up correctly on a monitor other than that your own. Hiring managers need to be able to scan your document quickly to see if you are qualified before moving on. If they can’t find out in 6-8 seconds, your résumé is trash. It is better to start with a blank document and look at other résumé examples for inspiration.

3. The selfish objective statement.

If you are using same old objective statement as everyone else, your résumé may be thrown in trash because you did not put forth effort to create a personalized résumé.

Here is an example objective you should avoid:

“A telecommute position allowing me to utilize my knowledge and expertise working from home.”