How to Find Alumni on LinkedIn? [3 Different Ways]
TL;DR: LinkedIn has three ways to find alumni: the built-in Alumni tool on university pages, the main search with school filters, and Sales Navigator's advanced alumni search. Alumni connections convert at 2-3x the rate of cold outreach because of shared identity. Use personalized connection requests that reference the shared school, then follow up with a warm message after they accept.
Alumni connections are some of the warmest outreach opportunities on LinkedIn. You went to the same school, which means you have an instant shared context. That shared context dramatically increases the chance that someone will accept your connection request, reply to your message, or take a meeting.
Whether you're job hunting, building a sales pipeline, or just expanding your professional network, finding alumni on LinkedIn is worth knowing how to do well.
Here are three methods, from the simplest to the most powerful.
3 Ways to Do LinkedIn Alumni Search in 2025
1. Use the LinkedIn Alumni Tool
LinkedIn has a dedicated alumni search feature that most people don't know about. It's the easiest way to find alumni from a specific school.
How to access it:
- Go to the LinkedIn page for your university or school
- Click on the "Alumni" tab in the navigation below the school's header
- You'll see a dashboard showing alumni data and search filters
What you can filter by:
- Where they live: Find alumni in a specific city or country
- Where they work: Find alumni at specific companies
- What they do: Filter by job function or industry
- What they studied: Filter by field of study or degree
- When they attended: Find alumni from specific graduation years
You can combine these filters. For example: alumni who graduated between 2010-2015, now work in tech, and are based in San Francisco.
Limitations: The alumni tool only shows people who have listed your school on their LinkedIn profile. Some alumni don't include their education, so you won't find everyone. The tool also doesn't let you filter by job title directly, which limits its usefulness for targeted prospecting.
2. Using LinkedIn Search
For more precise targeting, LinkedIn's main search with education filters gives you more control than the alumni tool.
How to do it:
- Click the search bar at the top of LinkedIn
- Search for a job title or keyword (e.g., "VP Marketing" or "Software Engineer")
- Click "All Filters" to open the advanced filter panel
- Scroll down to "School" and type your university name
- Apply the filter
This shows you people who match your search query AND attended your school. It's much more useful for targeted outreach because you can combine the alumni filter with job title, industry, location, and other criteria.
Example use cases:
- Finding VP-level alumni at companies you want to sell to
- Finding alumni who work at companies you want to join
- Finding alumni in a specific city when you're relocating
- Finding alumni in a specific industry you're trying to break into
Tip: LinkedIn's search sometimes misses results if the school name isn't entered exactly as it appears on profiles. Try variations: "University of Michigan," "U of M," "Michigan." Also try searching for the school's common abbreviations.
3. Using Sales Navigator Search
If you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you get significantly more powerful alumni search capabilities. This is the best method for sales prospecting and high-volume outreach.
How to use it:
- Open Sales Navigator and go to Lead Search
- In the "School" filter, enter your university name
- Combine with other filters: job title, seniority, company size, industry, geography
Sales Navigator's alumni search is more comprehensive than the basic LinkedIn search because it has more filter options and returns more complete results.
Additional Sales Navigator advantages for alumni outreach:
- TeamLink: Shows you if any of your colleagues are connected to an alumni prospect, enabling warm introductions
- Job change alerts: Get notified when alumni change jobs, which is a perfect time to reach out
- Account-based search: Find alumni at specific target companies
- Lead lists: Save alumni prospects to lists and track their activity over time
For sales teams, Sales Navigator alumni search is particularly powerful for account-based selling. If you're targeting a specific company, finding alumni who work there gives you a warm path in.
Why Should You Find and Connect to Alumni on LinkedIn?
Before diving into outreach tactics, it's worth understanding why alumni connections work so much better than cold outreach.
Network Expansion (Obviously!)
Alumni connections are the fastest way to expand your professional network with people who have a reason to help you. You went to the same school, which creates an instant sense of shared identity and obligation.
Studies on alumni networks consistently show that alumni are significantly more likely to help each other than non-alumni, even when they've never met. LinkedIn alumni connections convert at 2-3x the rate of cold outreach.
Great for Career Advice and Mentorship
Alumni who are further along in their careers are often genuinely willing to share advice with people from their school. The shared experience creates a sense of paying it forward.
If you're early in your career or making a transition, alumni connections can provide mentorship, introductions, and career guidance that would be hard to get from strangers.
More Job Opportunities
Many job openings are filled through referrals before they're ever posted publicly. Alumni connections give you access to that hidden job market. An alumnus at a company you want to join can refer you, introduce you to the hiring manager, or at least give you an honest picture of what it's like to work there.
Learn from Their Experience
Alumni who've navigated similar career paths can share what worked, what didn't, and what they wish they'd known. That kind of practical wisdom is hard to find and genuinely valuable.
How to Connect with Alumni on LinkedIn?
Finding alumni is the easy part. Reaching out in a way that gets a response is where most people stumble.
The alumni connection request:
Keep it short and reference the shared connection explicitly. Don't assume they'll notice you went to the same school.
"Hi [Name], I noticed we're both [School] alumni. I'm [brief description of what you do] and would love to connect with fellow [School] grads in [industry/city]."
That's enough. You don't need to explain your entire background or make an ask in the connection note.
The follow-up message:
After they accept, send a warm message that acknowledges the alumni connection and opens a conversation. Ask about their experience, their career path, or something specific about their current work.
"Thanks for connecting! Always great to meet fellow [School] alumni. I saw you're working on [topic] at [Company] — that's a space I find really interesting. How did you end up there?"
The ask (if you have one):
If you're job hunting, looking for introductions, or doing sales outreach, wait until you've had at least one exchange before making an ask. The alumni connection gets you in the door. The relationship you build determines whether they help you.
Personalized Alumni Connection Request Message Templates
Here are three templates you can adapt for different situations:
Template 1: General networking
"Hi [Name], I came across your profile and noticed we're both [School] alumni — always great to connect with fellow [School] grads. I'm currently [brief description of your role/focus] and would love to stay connected."
Template 2: Career advice
"Hi [Name], I'm a [School] alum currently [brief situation — e.g., 'exploring a move into product management']. I noticed you've built a great career in [field] and would love to connect and potentially learn from your experience."
Template 3: Sales outreach
"Hi [Name], I noticed we're both [School] alumni — small world! I work with [type of company] on [relevant topic] and thought it would be great to connect with fellow [School] grads in the [industry] space."
Keep connection notes under 300 characters. LinkedIn cuts them off after that, and shorter notes tend to get higher acceptance rates anyway.
Conclusion
Finding alumni on LinkedIn is straightforward once you know where to look. The built-in alumni tool is the easiest starting point. LinkedIn's advanced search gives you more targeting precision. Sales Navigator is the most powerful option for systematic prospecting.
The real value isn't in finding alumni. It's in using that shared connection to start conversations that would otherwise never happen.
Alumni connections convert better, lead to warmer relationships, and open doors that cold outreach can't. Build the habit of looking for alumni connections before you reach out cold — it's one of the highest-ROI tactics available on LinkedIn.
For sales teams running systematic alumni outreach at scale, Outly can automate the connection request and follow-up sequence, with personalized messages that reference the shared school. You build the list, Outly handles the outreach.
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