Use Your Alumni Network To Find Your Next Job

In this issue:

1. Basic Intro to networking

2. Why we should tap into your alumni network

3. How to find potential prospects (hiring managers, decision makers) in your alumni network

4. Results

Networking is one of the most important aspects for both your job search and career.

But one common complaint I get virtually every time I do my coaching calls is people feel uncomfortable reaching out to strangers on the internet (I mean our parents taught us this when we were kids so it makes sense 😅).

That, and that they are getting low response rates when they do find the courage to message people online.

But what if there was a way to make our outreaches “warmer”?.

By warmer, I mean there’s already some point of commonality between you and the prospective person that you can relate to.

When you have a “warm” connection, it makes it more likely that they’ll get back to you.

Now obviously it’s not guaranteed that someone will answer you because you have something in common.

But it raises the batting average. It raises your chances that they will get back to you.

And that’s what it’s all about. Raising the batting average. Getting on base. Making it more likely you’re going to score.

Que Tapping Into Your Alumni Network

Ah, college. Who didn’t have a fun time when they were in school?

This may or may not be the reason why I’m a recruiter and not following my father’s footsteps (former IT Director) and getting into an actual tech position 😂

In my experience, alumni are more likely to help out fellow alumni for two main reasons:

1. You have that central point of commonality of graduating from the same school

2. Most people had a good time in college, which brings up good memories, nostalgia, and some great talking points to break the ice

I personally started out my career doing this. I went on LinkedIn, looked up prospects (hiring managers, decision makers) that went to my school, and started making introductions.

It’s amazing how more likely fellow alumni are willing to take a call to help someone else out.

So, how do we do this?

Step By Step Instructions

First, let’s go to your alma mater’s page on linkedin. For this example, we will use Penn State.

Note: I did not go to Penn State. In fact, I was rejected, I’m just a fan of their football team. So don’t bother trying to find me that way 😂

From here, we’ll select the “alumni” tab.

From here, you’ll also wee two interesting tabs.

First, you’ll see “where they work”. You can choose to expand this option to see some of the most common companies where you’ll find PSU alumni. For this example, we’ll click on Amazon since it’s the first one there.

Then, where you see that little search bar, we’ll type in “Director” to filter straight into decision makers.

Boom, the first 6 people that showed up are solid leads to reach out to. Now you can do this with any of the other companies that popped up on that original search page above.

Next, let’s check out “where they live. We’re going to ignore the “where they work” portion and just focus on location. Since I’m in the greater NYC area, we’ll click on that.

From there, I want you to type in “Director” again in that search bar that shows up right under the number of alumni.

Boom. Another 6 leads.

Now, let’s clear those search features and go back to that original Alumni page. We can search by “what they do” if you scroll a bit to the right.

For the sake of this post, let’s click on Information Technology, AND we’ll also click on the greater NYC area.

Again, in that little search bar under alumni count, let’s type in “Director”.

Boom! Now we have a ton of leads. All decision makers, all in the area, that we can meet for coffee, take out to lunch, and hire within a commutable distance.

Now you don’t need to just target directors or hiring managers. You can do this to target fellow individual contributors & peers to build a network that way, whether to learn, collaborate, or eventually have them intro you to their boss.

Results:

Since I’ve started doing career coaching calls in the summer, my clients have been giving great feedback with this tactic.

Some of found new jobs this way. Some have used this to slowly but surely build that network from scratch.

It’s much easier to build your network when we’re targeting those we have points of commonality with.

And then you get icing on the cake when you can tap into their nostalgia via memories from college.

So why don’t you try it out, and let me know how this exercise goes!

Shameless Plugs

By the way, if you need any help how to reach out to alumni with this method, or anything else related to your job search/career, feel free to schedule a call with me here:

If you want a cheap & easy to use guide for your job search, you can check out my ebook here as well: