New-Grad Referrals

Find an Alum at a Tech Company for a Referral

Cold applications from new grads get filtered by keyword before a human ever reads them. A two-line message to an alum who joined 18 months ago gets you an internal referral, which is a different pile.

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Example - what you’ll see

Someone who works at your target company

🎓 Same university as you · 💼 Shared past employer

🔥 Strongest

A recruiter at your target company

🎓 Same university as you

🎓 Alumni

✍️ Ready-to-send intro“Hi - we both studied at [your school]. I’d love to hear about your path to a company you are targeting before I apply…”

… plus everyone else in your network who can put in a good word.

See who can refer you in - pick your target company:

Short answer: Search LinkedIn for people who list both your school and your target company, then filter to those who graduated within the last two or three years and hold a software role. They remember the new-grad grind and still have referral bonuses to earn. Message one person, lead with the specific class or club you shared, and ask if they would refer you for a named req. Keep it under 80 words.

Why a recent alum beats a senior manager

New grads instinctively message the most impressive person they can find, usually a director or a staff engineer. That is backwards. Someone three levels up gets 40 cold messages a week and has no referral bonus riding on you. A software engineer who left your school two years ago has an open referral link, a cash incentive to use it, and a live memory of applying with your exact resume.

Recency is the real filter, not seniority. An alum who joined last summer knows which teams are hiring new grads right now, what the current interview loop looks like, and whose name to drop. A ten-year veteran knows none of that and will tell you to apply online.

How to find the right person in ten minutes

You are looking for the overlap between your school and the company, then narrowing to people who can actually help. Do not stop at the first name you recognize.

Search both signals at once. On LinkedIn, filter by your school under Education and the company under Current company. UIUC and Waterloo both have large, tight alumni networks in tech, so this usually returns a dozen or more people.
Cut to the last three grad years. Someone who graduated recently still has a referral bonus and remembers the process. Sort by graduation year and ignore anyone senior enough to have forgotten what applying felt like.
Confirm they touch hiring. A software engineer, an intern-turned-full-time, or a new-grad on the team can submit a referral. Recruiters and skip-level managers usually cannot or will not for a stranger.
Pick one, not ten. Message a single person first and wait. Blasting eight alums at the same company gets noticed internally and makes you look desperate.

Let FindWarmIntros do the finding and ranking

The manual version works but eats an evening per company, and LinkedIn hides half the alumni behind connection walls. FindWarmIntros is a free tool that takes your school and a target company and returns the real people you share a school or past employer with, already ranked by how recent and reachable they are, with a warm intro drafted for the top match. It does the finding-and-ranking step so you spend your time on the actual conversation.

Whichever way you find them, the message is what matters. Lead with the shared thread (the same intro CS course, the same design team, the same co-op cycle), make the ask cost them 30 seconds, and name the exact requisition so they can paste your link without hunting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I say in the first message to an alum?

Keep it under 80 words. Open with the specific thing you share (same school, a class, a club, a co-op employer), say you are a new grad targeting one named role on their team or company, and ask if they would be open to referring you. Attach the req link so referring you takes one click.

Is it rude to ask a stranger for a referral?

No, if you make it easy and specific. Recent alums have a cash referral bonus and a fresh memory of the new-grad search, so a clean two-line ask that names the exact role reads as respectful of their time, not entitled. Vague asks like can you help me get a job are what feel rude.

What if the alum ignores me?

Wait a week, then send one short follow-up or move to the next person on your list. Do not double-message the same day or guilt them. A no-reply usually means they are busy, not offended, and there are almost always several qualifying alums per company.

Do referrals actually help new grads get interviews?

Yes. A referral routes your resume into the referred pile, which recruiters screen separately from the general online-apply flood. It does not guarantee an offer, but at large tech companies it is the difference between a human reading your resume and an automated keyword filter rejecting it first.

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