An alternative to a referral is a recruiter. A recruiter probably spends about a whole minute looking at your resume. They filter out the obvious crap - someone

An alternative to a referral is a recruiter. A recruiter probably spends about a whole minute looking at your resume. They filter out the obvious crap - someone with no experience applying for a job requiring experience, people who can't show up on time, or someone who lies about going to MIT and stuff. They're a low quality filter, but can probably remove 3/4 of the junk, and often improve your odds.