Informational interview
Also called coffee chat, networking call.
A short, low-stakes conversation with someone doing the work you want, asked for as research rather than as a job request.
The request that gets accepted is narrow and cheap: fifteen or twenty minutes, a specific reason you asked this person, and no ask for a referral. People say yes to that far more often than to a general networking request, because it has an end and a purpose.
The value is information you cannot get from a posting: what the team is actually struggling with, which of the listed requirements are real, how decisions get made, and whether the role is what its title suggests. That reshapes both whether you apply and what you emphasize when you do.
Referrals happen as a byproduct, not as the goal. Someone who has had a good conversation with you and later sees a fitting req will sometimes forward you unprompted — and a forward from a person who has spoken to you carries much more weight than one from a stranger you asked.
Employee referral
An internal recommendation from someone at the company, which routes your application to a reviewed queue instead of the general pile.
Recruiter screen
The first conversation in most hiring processes — a 20–30 minute call confirming basics and deciding whether to pass you to the hiring manager.