Yep - network helps you get an interview where you otherwise would be ignored (if you haven't gone to MIT/Stanford/CMU and haven't yet worked at Google/Facebook/Palantir/YC Startup), but it doesn't get you out of the interview puzzles.

Only way to bypass that is to start your own company or know somebody in a powerful position.

No, quite the opposite. It's an old trick for job searching. It doesn't originate in tech. It's one reason why people go to networking events in their industry.

My impression of what reaching out means today is a chat over coffee, lunch, or less preferably a phone call.

Almost anyone in any company can go to HR and say, "This person is great, we should interview them for position X" and they will go to the top of the pile. If you reach out to someone you know at a company, if they like you, and you are good, usually you can get an interview there.

Contacts are also good at helping you find unposted jobs. You have to "Reach out" first.

Contacts can also recommend you to a hiring manager. The best hiring managers trust a reference based on a long working relationship over 30-45 minutes in an interview. But you have to "reach out" first.

It's the latest euphemism for "communicating with a person in some manner whose details are not relevant" to join the already well-populated set { "approach", "contact", "consult", "get in touch", "speak with" }. I hate "reach out" with a passion and draw instant conclusions about those who use it, but I'm sure that most of the above were also hated when they were invented and it does fill a need for a missing verb in English.

A personal connection, with someone who is in a hiring position, has a high likelihood hiring you outside of their interview process. With a vested interest to hire you in the company, it's much more likely that the interview process will be a more collaborative experience- such as coffee with a CTO to discuss the problems they're having.

And it doesn't need to be "best friend" level of personal connection, it's someone you often see at that AngularJS meetup or whatever- after three or four pleasant conversations you'd be surprised how invested they can be to hire you- especially because they already know what your skill set is and would only look at you if you fit the problem they're having.

This is the value proposition of going to Meetups, Conferences, Talks, etc. You start to see who the "regulars" are, and persons in a hiring position tend to bias very heavily to people they are already familiar with.

Very annoying, but not that new:

http://apennedpoint.com/dont-reach-out-to-me-please/