How to find alumni on LinkedIn in 2025: 3 different ways

Thinking of connecting with some old friends and colleagues in 2025?

It’s great for your network and career.

And LinkedIn makes it very easy for you because everyone’s on LinkedIn these days, but more — professionally.

So, you can look up for them very easily.

I’ll talk about 3 simple ways to search for your school/ college alumni on LinkedIn and how you can reach out to them more efficiently.

Efficiently?

How can you ‘reach out’ more efficiently?

Patience, we’ll talk about it... in a while. ;)

So, if you’re ready... grab your coffee and let’s begin!

3 Ways to find alumni on LinkedIn in 2024

Each one of you might have a different reason to look up for your alumni on LinkedIn.

Some might need career advice, some are looking for more opportunities, and some simply wanna catch up!

Whatever your reason is — here are 3 ways to do it.

1. Using the LinkedIn Alumni tool

The first place you should check out is via LinkedIn alumni tool.

👉🏼All you need to do is go to your school/ college’s page on LinkedIn.

👉🏼Click on ‘Alumni.’

👉🏼Now this is what you get:

Here, you can also look for people based on their title, keyword, or company.

So, if you have something on your mind, just search for it!

Once you filter people based on your preferences, they’ll appear in the ‘People you may know’ section below.

Once you find them, you can click on their profile to learn more about them, connect with them, and talk to them.

2. Using LinkedIn search

You can use LinkedIn search in a similar way and find alumni of your school and college very easily.

If you’re looking for people and some groups where most of the alumni stay active, then this just might work better for you.

👉🏼Go to LinkedIn search, and using LinkedIn boolean search, type this in the search bar: <school/ college name> AND alumni.

👉🏼Now, pick whether you want to see groups or people.

For example, I selected people and got this:

Once you have your search results, you can send connection requests to people or join relevant groups.

3. Using Sales Navigator search

Sales Navigator is a paid but great tool by LinkedIn to filter out relevant people super quickly.

And you can always sign up for the free trial!😉

It’s also very easy to use, with over 50 search filters.

Yes, over 50.

These are enough to filter out your alumni.

Use the ‘School’ filter to sort people by their school or college, and you can use others such as ‘Company,’ ‘Geography,’ and many more to target people more effectively!

And that’s not all.

You can filter people from their current company, past company, location, college, and so much more.

It will lead to much more targeted results.

Why should you find and connect to alumni on LinkedIn

When it comes to building a meaningful professional network, LinkedIn can be a powerful tool.

But there's one group of people on the platform that can give your career a serious boost — your alumni.

Here's why connecting with alumni on LinkedIn is more than just a nice-to-have:

Network expansion (obviously!)

One of the most obvious benefits of reaching out to alumni is the chance to expand your network.

Alumni networks are often incredibly supportive, with people eager to connect with others from their alma mater.

These connections aren’t just limited to people in your field.

You’ll be amazed at the range of professionals from various industries who are ready to offer advice, collaborate, or simply share their experiences.

Plus, it’s great to catch-up (ykwim?)

Great for career advice and mentorship

Alumni often understand the struggles of being in the early stages of your career because you know — they’ve been there.

This makes them excellent at career advice, and many alumni are open to mentoring too.

So whether you’re seeking guidance on a career transition or just looking for someone to talk to, alumni are great and can steer you in the right direction.

More job opportunities

Duh!?

Alumni networks are the easiest way to get more job opportunities, fast.

Many alumni even prefer to hire people from their own network and often share job postings with one another.

By connecting with alumni, you may come across job openings that aren’t listed elsewhere, and you could even receive a referral that gives you an edge in the hiring process. ;)

Plus, with people in the industry already familiar with your school’s programs, they’re likely to trust your background.

Learn from their experience

Alumni are living proof of the paths your career can take — and they’ve got the stories and lessons to prove it.

From insights about working in specific industries to advice on how to climb the corporate ladder (or navigate a career switch), alumni can offer wisdom that you won’t find in any of the textbooks or online articles.

This will help you fast-track your own career and avoid some of the roadblocks they faced.

And, they’re much easier to start a conversation with, anyway, right?

Whether it’s a shared professor, a favorite spot on campus, or just the experience of being part of the same academic environment, you can dive right into a conversation about your shared experiences, and it will automatically feel more natural and less transactional.

Now that you’ve got clarity, let’s talk about HOW you can reach out to them more efficiently on LinkedIn.

How to reach out to alumni on LinkedIn?

Done with your research and ready to connect with people from your past?

Here’s something you gotta do now —

✅Research really, really well.

You knew them at some point, but that’s gone now.

Make sure you’re updated about their life when you start writing a message for them.

And well, if you can’t find up-to-date info, it’s better to mention it upfront and ask them how they’ve been.

Additional tip: Keep your profile updated too, so if they open it to check it out, then it doesn’t look like another spam.

✅Start with an intro, please.

Like I said, it’s not necessary they remember you now, so it’s better you introduce yourself beforehand to avoid any confusion later.

You can even start interacting with their LinkedIn feed to warm-up; they might recognize and text you first!

✅If you’re reaching out for a purpose, state it.

If you have a goal in mind, to connect with someone they know, or ask them to try out your product, or whatever, let them know.

Don’t beat around the bush only to say it later and end up looking like a weirdo.

✅Follow-up.

If you don’t hear back from them, chances are your message got lost somewhere in their inbox.

Before you start feeling ghosted, follow-up with them and follow this checklist from #1 to make sure they recognize you!

Don’t be afraid to follow-up.

Want some examples?

Personalized alumni connection request message templates

Here are three different message templates you can use when connecting with some alumni:

Template #1: When you just wanna connect

Being part of [University Name] always feels like carrying a piece of home wherever we go. I’d love to connect and hear more about your journey since [university], [name]. Let’s stay in touch!

Template #2: When you want to learn from them

There’s something about seeing [University Name] alumni doing incredible things — it’s inspiring! Your work in [Industry/Field] caught my attention, [name], and I’d love to connect and learn from your experiences.

Template #3: When they’re nearby and you wanna get in touch

Hi [Name]! I saw we’re both alumni of [University Name] and currently based in [Location]. It’d be great to connect with fellow alumni here.

Now, if your goal was to get in touch with 4-5 people, please go ahead and send connection requests to them.

But if you wish to contact a lot of people on LinkedIn, doing this manually can sound exhausting and draining, which it is, tbh.

So, what can we do?

Here’s what you can do..

Use a LinkedIn automation tool like SalesRobot.

SalesRobot can automate sending connection requests (with personalized messages) to multiple people simultaneously.

All you have to do is create a campaign and copy-paste your search results in SalesRobot.

👉🏼Sign up for the free trial, go to the campaigns page and create a new campaign.

👉🏼If you’re familiar with LinkedIn automation tools, you can click on ‘I’m an advanced user’ or else create a campaign with SalesGPT.

👉🏼Now, pick how you conducted your search, copy-paste the link, and you’re sorted!

👉🏼You can set up your schedule now on how you want your campaign to run from the start till the end; and SalesRobot will follow-up too!

Conclusion

Connecting with alumni is a stress-free way of expanding your LinkedIn network and opening new doors for your career.

And what better platform than LinkedIn to do so?

You get specific tools that can pinpoint your alumni, and the best part is: you can automate it all!

Just remember to play by the rules and not get very casual when texting someone after a really long time.

Happy networking! 🙂

Take care.