In his book, The Future of Success (2001), Robert Reich, professor at Brandeis University and former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, following a paragraph about the value of a college education having more to do with who one has met there than what one has learned, writes this about the relationship of résumés and businesses:

Businesses looking to hire are placing greater reliance on referrals from people they trust, for the same reason that trustworthy brand-portals are becoming more important to buyers who are drowning in information and need guidance as to what's good. Even in a tight labor market, the sheer volume of résumés in circulation at any moment is beyond the power of employers to process. Entire galaxies in cyberspace will soon be taken up with Internet job boards deploying millions of electronic resumes, from young people entering the job market as well as others who want better jobs. Several of my students already have mastered the art of filling resumes with "scannable" keywords guaranteed to be picked up by every digital resume-management system in the civilized world. They're also "blast-faxing" their credentials to thousands of additional employers, and combing Internet databases for more addresses. One student told me proudly that she'd sent more than 5,000 "personalized" resumes, each highlighting aspects of her education and experiences most likely to be attractive to a particular target. Source: R. B. Reich, The Future of Success. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.), p. 134.

1		Are you aware of the necessity that Reich points out, the value of the connections you acquire during your college education? Reich claims, "The more prestigious the university, the more valuable such connections are likely to be" (p. 134).
2		If you do not have the connections necessary to impress companies, what kinds of things can you do that would compensate for this lack?
3		Reich writes in the paragraph following the one excerpted above, "Personal job referrals are like letters, e-mails, and phone calls from familiar names in this era of communication overload. They're convenient filters" (p. 134). Knowing that a communication overload exists, what tactics can you use in writing your resumes, or applying for jobs, that would help you stand out from the crowd? That would help you break through this communication overload?