How to find alumni on linkedin: A step-by-step guide

The LinkedIn Alumni Tool is just another great feature the platform provides for its users for searching for alumni from their schools or universities, creating an easily accessible base of outreach to others who share educational backgrounds and potential interests.

Whether you are a job seeker or someone looking for a career change, this tool comes in handy.

With the LinkedIn alumni search tool, you can find people working within the same industries or companies. How does it help? Well, it makes it easier to reach out to people and connect with them.

You also find rich data insights into alumni career paths, the industries pursued by them, and the skills developed throughout. You can also use this tool to see data on the industries and job titles that alumni have pursued, which can be useful in identifying potential career paths or industries to explore.

The LinkedIn Alumni Tool is one of the most powerful tools for leveraging alumni connections to make informed career decisions for progress in professional success.

How to Find Alumni on LinkedIn

To access the LinkedIn Alumni Tool start by typing college or university name in the search field at the very top of the page. After you enter the name of the school, choose its official page from the list that appears.

You also can access it directly from the profile by clicking on the logo of your school, if it is already linked. Either way , it will take you to the institution’s main LinkedIn page, where you will find the “See alumni” button. The good news is that this works for any school, whether you attended it or not. Just click that button and get into the alumni network.

If you want to drill down results to alumni who fit your desired criteria, click on the bars under the categories of “Where they live”, “Where they work”, and “What they do”. You can also filter by year, the class attended or graduated, and if you want to search for alumni based on a company name, job title, or any relevant keyword, you can do that with the help of the search bar marked with a magnifying glass icon. This makes locating alumni members with backgrounds or positions compatible with your interests a relatively easy task.

Find Alumni By Company

If you are looking to find alumni by company, meaning finding people who you previously worked with within a particular organization, here are a few simple steps that you can follow.

Begin by going to the company filter. In this filter or section, select the “Past” employees option instead of “Current” because you want to find your former co-workers. Once done, type in the company name to get a list of all former employees of your past organization.

You can also further narrow down your search by adding a simple Title filter with the role you are looking for or searching for. This will help you refine your search and find your company alumni on LinkedIn in certain positions.

Remember, you don’t need a premium to access this feature. It is easily available on the free LinkedIn version.

Find Alumni By Location

Now let’s learn how to find alumni by location on LinkedIn.

Filtering LinkedIn alumni by location can bring you innumerable benefits. Especially, if you are one of those people looking to make professional relationships with people within your area.

You get many new opportunities for networking by finding alumni who live nearby or work in companies in your area. There could be many opportunities regarding local events, access to professional groups, or even networking with people in a networking meet-up.

Not just that, actually networking with alumni in your area sends you to a better career prospect and lead, get an idea of the job market or even just again, mentorship. Pretty helpful, right? Now, how do you apply a location filter?

To do that, just click on the desired location from the list of cities or countries that are there in the Alumni tab. In this example, you can see that there are more than 520 alumni located just within the New York area.

Find Alumni By What They Do

To search for LinkedIn alumni by what they do, follow these steps:

Go to the Alumni Tool: First, navigate over to the LinkedIn page of the school or university that you’re interested in. You can either just type in the name of the school into the search bar on LinkedIn and then select the official page or, if it’s there, click your own school’s logo that appears on your profile.

Click “See Alumni”: Scroll down to the school’s LinkedIn page and find the “See Alumni” button. Upon clicking, it will open the LinkedIn Alumni Tool that will lead you to a vast amount of alumni information.

Filter by “What They Do”: You will also find other categories of filters in the Alumni Tool, and one of them is “What they do.” It enables you to find alumni according to the field in which they work-for instance, “Business Development,” “Engineering,” “Marketing,” or whatever your interest may be. You just need to click on the career field that interests you, and the tool will show you all the alumni working in that sector.

Refine using Keywords or Job Titles: If you’d like more specificity, you can actually input keywords or job titles in the search bar to find alumni of specific professions or specialties in your chosen area.

These steps will help you locate and connect with alumni working in specific professions, which can help discover potential mentors, collaborators, or industry experts in your particular alumni network.

Find Alumni By What they are Skilled at

To search for LinkedIn alumni by their skills: Follow these steps:

Visit the LinkedIn Alumni Tool: Go to the LinkedIn page of the school or university that you are interested in. You can simply type the name of the school in the search bar on LinkedIn and choose the official page, or you can click on the logo of the school from your profile.

Click on “See Alumni”: You will see a link or button on the school’s LinkedIn page; click “See alumni” to navigate to the Alumni Tool. From the Alumni Tool, you can access a range of search filters to explore any information available about alumni.

Filter by Skills: Find the “What they are skilled at” section in the Alumni Tool. Here, you can see the popular skills of the alumni, including “Data Analysis,” “Project Management,” “Marketing,” “Software Development,” and many more. This will generate a list of alumni who possess that particular skill of your interest.

Filter in with Others: Take the skill filter but combine it with other kinds of filters, such as location, company, or industry. This narrows down alumni who have both skills and other sorts of qualities you’re looking for, such as working in a particular city or working for specific companies.

Find Alumni By What they Studied

To find LinkedIn alumni based on what they studied, follow the following steps:

Open the LinkedIn Alumni Tool: From your LinkedIn account, open the school or university page you are interested in. To find the school, just type its name in the search field and hit enter. Then select the official page. Or click on the school’s logo from your profile if it’s listed there.

Click See Alumni: Click on the See Alumni button on the page. This opens up the Alumni Tool where you might find several useful information about graduates.

Filter by “What they studied”: In the Alumni Tool, click on the button named “What they studied.” It can be filtered by field of study - it is a list of fields of study, like Computer Science, Business Administration, Psychology, etc. Click an area of study to see alumni who majored in it.

Combine with Other Filters: You can use what they studied in conjunction with other filters: location, employer, and industry, to narrow search results to alumni who studied that specific subject and otherwise look for criteria such as where they live or work.

How to Find a Company’s Former Employees (Alumni)

Here’s how to go about it:

Go to LinkedIn Search: Type in the name of an organization of interest in the search bar at the top of the page and then click the official LinkedIn page for that organization from the list of search results.

Open the People Section: Once you land on the company’s LinkedIn page, click on a section called “People” - this can usually be found under the company name in the navigation bar or even within the “More” dropdown. Click “People” to open a people directory of employees affiliated with the company.

Apply the “Past Company” Filter: In your People view on the left-hand side of the page, you’ll see “Location,” “Job Function,” and “Company,” among others. Under “Company,” you will find a dropdown filter named “Company.” Change this filter to “Past company” instead of “Current.” In this case, you are only viewing those who have ever worked at this company.

Add More Filters (Optional): If you’d like to be more specific while searching, you can include additional filters that include specific job titles, locations or keywords within the search box to find alumni who fit specific criteria like past managers and executives.

How LinkedIn Alumni Tool Can Help You

The LinkedIn Alumni tool gives you insights that will help your career majorly. It is easy to find your university or college using LinkedIn and to see which companies their alumni have joined.

You get to explore which sectors, industries, or companies graduates of your school are doing well in. Plus, you can also capitalize on the relationships you have formed with former classmates who could provide some useful tips or get you a foot in the door of their organization.

The Alumni tool is a very strong means of tapping into your academic network and discovering new professional opportunities.

Discover People From Your Alma Mater

The LinkedIn Alumni Tool is not just a tool for finding alumni and expanding your network but provides much more:

1. Job Search: You can use the tool to find alumni working in companies you’re interested in, and connect with them to get insights about job openings or company culture.
2. Mentorship: With the ability to connect with alumni working in the same industry or function, you can seek mentorship and professional advice that will guide your career development.
3. Stay Updated with Industry Trends: The LinkedIn alumni search tool also helps you stay updated with the current industrial trends. You can keep track of what is happening and the latest updates in the field at companies of interest by finding alumni in your field or field that interest you, which helps you in competing within an industry or even transitioning into a new industry.

Discover People From Other Schools

The LinkedIn Alumni tool extends beyond just letting you explore graduates from your own school. In fact, you can easily access the alumni information for any university, college, or school on the platform. What do you get out of it? Well, it opens up a wealth of networking and career exploration opportunities.

To access the alumni data for a different institution, as we already have discussed in this blog, simply go to LinkedIn and search for the school you’re interested in. Look for the school’s “School” page (not the “Company” page) and click on it. On the right side of the school’s homepage, you’ll see several tabs - find the “Alumni” tab and click on that.

This will take you to the LinkedIn Alumni tool’s search functionality for that particular school. Now you can browse through the profiles of everyone who attended that institution, regardless of whether they were your classmates or not. This is a powerful way to expand your professional network and gain insights into the types of careers and companies that graduates from different schools have pursued.

Hunt for New Jobs

The LinkedIn Alumni tool is one of the best tools out there for cracking new job opportunities. Not only can you discover new job openings or positions using this feature, but you can also find and connect with other graduates who are currently working in a company of your interest.

Now, if the company you are looking for isn’t in the top five list of companies, simply narrow down your search by selecting the field of work.

Search People with the Same Major

You may want to find out what people who have the same degree or major as you are currently doing professionally. The LinkedIn Alumni tool comes in handy for this.

With this feature, you can expand your professional network by connecting with people in your field or initiating conversations with them.

Contact Top-performers in Your Industry

The LinkedIn Alumni tool is an excellent way to find and connect with respected professionals in your line of work, even if you didn’t attend their alma mater.

Look for LinkedIn profiles of graduates from the most renowned universities, or all those offering great programs in your industry, and connect with them.

When you build a professional relationship with incredible leaders, innovators, and subject matter experts, you get to seek their advice regarding their experiences, and possibly discover a new business partnership or job opportunity. Easily filter by current employer, job title, or location, to find the most relevant and impactful contacts for furthering your career.

How to Reach Out to Alumni on LinkedIn

Now that we know how to find alumni on LinkedIn or how they are important for your professional network, let’s understand how to reach out to them once you find them. The most important tip is to customize your message and always explain why you are keen on connecting with them.

Here are a few top tips:

Do your research

Thorough research always goes a long way. Before you make the move of reaching out to an alum, find some time to go through their LinkedIn profiles to understand their academic backgrounds, professional experiences, interests and current role. This will help you draft a clear and customized message to establish a relationship.

Start with a warm introduction

When reaching out to alumni with a connection request, begin with a friendly introduction. Mention your shared background, such as attending the same school or university, and compliment their work or accomplishments. This approach will help create rapport and set a positive tone for your message.

Be specific

When you draft a customized message, always start by explaining why you want to connect with them and what value can you add to their network. Explaining the purpose is always a good idea!

Clear and specific messages are always well received so draft your template carefully.

Keep it brief

Everyone is busy, so you don’t want to waste their time. The key is to keep your message short, simple and to the point.

Offer value

Establish a mutually beneficial relationship while reaching out to alumni. Be clear about the value they can derive from you.

Follow up

In case you don’t hear back from them in a while, you can shoot a follow-up message. This might help you get their attention.

Best Practices for Engaging Your Alumni on LinkedIn

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile: A well-optimized profile with a professional photo, clear headline, and engaging summary enhances your credibility and increases the chances of meaningful connections.

Use the Alumni Tool: Use the Alumni Tool to know what alumni have been up to in their careers. You can connect with those located near you or in industries or companies you like.

Reach Out: Authentic support strengthens the network and trust.

Share Content: Share relevant content from your institution on your LinkedIn page and get others to do the same.

Stay Connected: Keep in touch with the alumni community. Celebrate achievements and job updates. This fosters engagement and encourages everyone to share more.

Conclusion

The LinkedIn Alumni tool allows you to strategically grow your professional network while connecting with people who share your education and career background even beyond your alma mater.

This is specifically helpful in identifying potential opportunities at your target companies, creating industry insights, and connecting with new locations.

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