How to Reach Out to Alumni on LinkedIn

Alumni are the single warmest contacts in a job search — someone once helped them, and they expect to pay it forward. The trick is finding the right ones and letting the shared school open the door.

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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: Find alumni with the LinkedIn alumni tool (your school page → Alumni → filter by company), then send a short note that leads with the shared school, says one specific thing about why you are reaching out, and asks a small question about their path — not for a job. The shared school is why they reply; keep the first message light and let the relationship build before any ask.

Find the right alumni first

The fastest way to find alumni at a specific company:

The LinkedIn alumni tool. Open your school's LinkedIn page, click "Alumni," and filter "Where they work" by the target company. Most people never use this, and it is the highest-yield move there is.
Your alumni directory or Handshake. Often lists people who opted in to being contacted and are not easy to find otherwise.
Recent grads and your own department. People one or two years ahead of you are the most relatable and the most likely to reply.

What to say

Lead with the school in the first line — "fellow [School] grad" is the reason your message gets opened instead of archived. Then say one specific thing: the team they are on, a project, the exact role you are exploring. Generic beats nothing but specific beats generic by a mile.

Do not ask for a job or a referral in message one. Ask a small, genuine question about their path or their team. Alumni help readily, but they help a person they had a short human exchange with, not a stranger who opened by demanding a favor.

Do the finding automatically

The manual alumni search works well but is slow across several target companies. FindWarmIntros does it for you: enter a company and your background and it returns the alumni (and ex-colleagues) who actually work there, ranked by how strong the shared connection is, each with a ready-to-send note.

That means you spend your time on the conversations, not on scrolling the alumni filter company by company. Free, no signup.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find alumni from my school at a company?

Use the LinkedIn alumni tool: go to your school's LinkedIn page, click "Alumni," and filter "Where they work" by the company. Your alumni directory and Handshake are good secondary sources. FindWarmIntros automates this across multiple companies at once.

What do I say to an alum on LinkedIn?

Lead with the shared school in the first line, say one specific thing about why you are reaching out, and ask a small question about their path — not for a job. The shared school is what earns the reply; keep it short and let the relationship build before any ask.

Do alumni actually respond to cold messages?

Alumni reply at far higher rates than any other cold contact because the shared school creates real goodwill — someone helped them once. A short, specific, low-pressure note that leads with the school gets responses that a generic message never would.

Should I ask an alum for a referral right away?

No. Open with genuine curiosity about their path or team and have one short exchange first. The referral tends to follow naturally once they know what you are after — leading with the ask is what makes even a fellow alum hesitate.

Keep going

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