Job-hunt terms, explained.
Career and hiring terms, defined plainly — so you always know what you're reaching for.
A/B Testing (Outreach)
Sending two variations of a message to compare which performs better — used to refine subject lines and copy over time.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Software companies use to collect, filter, and manage job applications — often screening out resumes before any human reads them.
Boolean Search
A search technique using operators like AND, OR, and NOT — how recruiters filter candidates in an ATS or on LinkedIn.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of emails that fail to deliver because the address is invalid — a high bounce rate damages your sender reputation.
Catch-all Email
A domain configured to accept mail sent to any address — which makes verifying a specific person's email harder.
Cold Email
An unsolicited but personalized email sent to someone you don't know — in job search, to a hiring manager or founder to introduce yourself directly.
Decision-Maker
The person with the authority to actually say yes to hiring you — the one whose buy-in determines whether you get an offer.
Email Deliverability
Whether your emails actually reach the inbox rather than the spam folder — the foundation of any cold-outreach effort.
Email Open Rate
The percentage of recipients who open your email — a signal of subject-line strength, but far less important than reply rate.
Email Verification
The process of checking whether an email address is valid and deliverable before sending — essential for protecting your sender reputation.
Follow-up Sequence
A planned series of follow-up messages sent after an initial cold email — most replies come from the follow-ups, not the first touch.
Founder-led Hiring
Hiring at small companies where the founder personally sources, evaluates, and decides — the most directly reachable hiring situation for outreach.
Hidden Job Market
The large share of jobs that are filled through referrals and direct outreach before they're ever publicly posted on a job board.
Hiring Manager
The person who owns the open role and makes the final call on who gets hired — usually the manager of the team you'd join, not the recruiter.
Inbound vs Outbound Application
Inbound means applying through a public posting and waiting; outbound means proactively reaching a decision-maker directly. Outbound usually converts better.
Job-Search Automation
Using software to handle the mechanical parts of a job search — finding roles, decision-makers, and emails — while keeping the human touch personal.
Mail Merge
A technique for sending personalized versions of a message to many recipients by inserting individual data fields into a template.
Outbound Job Search
A proactive job-search strategy of directly reaching decision-makers, rather than applying through postings and waiting for a response.
Passive Candidate
Someone not actively job hunting but open to the right opportunity — often more attractive to employers than active applicants.
Pattern-based Email Guessing
Constructing someone's likely email address by applying the company's known email format to their name — then verifying it.
Personalization
Tailoring an outreach message to a specific recipient so it could only have been sent to them — the single biggest driver of reply rate.
Recruiter Screen
The initial call with a recruiter that gauges basic fit, motivation, and logistics before you advance to the hiring manager.
Reply Rate
The percentage of your outreach messages that receive a response — the single most important metric in cold outreach.
Sender Reputation
A trust score mailbox providers assign to your sending address and domain — it determines whether your emails reach the inbox or spam.
Spam Filter
Automated systems that decide whether an email reaches the inbox or the spam folder, based on content, reputation, and sending behavior.
Talent Pipeline
A pool of qualified candidates a company keeps warm for current and future roles — being in it means you're considered before public posting.
Warm Intro
An introduction to a decision-maker made by a mutual connection — dramatically more likely to get a reply than a cold approach.