LinkedIn Alumni Network Offers Job Seekers Info Sources

By Joshua Waldman from Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies

Your LinkedIn alumni network can be an extremely powerful tool for finding good sources of information about target companies or industry openings. This is a great group of people with whom you can conduct informational interviews.

Nothing is stronger than the connection you have with fellow alumni. Your school’s alumni counsel and career center have high hopes for the LinkedIn Group they started. Not only are schools encouraging alumni to join their alumni group, but also they’re promoting participation in events, discussions, and networking with other members.

To access your school’s alumni network for info interviews, just follow these simple steps. (But first, make sure that you’re in fact a member of your school’s group on LinkedIn by reviewing the list of groups that appears when you click on the Groups tab in the top ribbon of your LinkedIn page.)

Click on the Advanced link next to the search bar at the top right of the page.

Make sure the search field is set to People and not something else, like Jobs or Answers.
Type in the name of your school in the School field.
Scroll down to Relationship and click on Group Members.

Make sure no other box is checked in the Relationship area.
Click on the Search button at the bottom of the page.
Scan the additional filters on the results page and make sure your school is checked and not another school with a similar name.

For example, LinkedIn delivers results for Boston College in addition to Boston University.
Enter a keyword to expand the search beyond your network.

Using a keyword, like your industry or field, tells LinkedIn to look beyond your second- and third-degree network for results. If you use a good keyword to expand your search, then you’ll have a very strong list of potential sources for information. Of course, you can also further refine your list by searching only the specific companies or industries you’re targeting.

Scan these results to find out what groups you share with these people. Most of the results on this page are fellow alumni as well as fellow members of the alumni group. Without the previous steps, you’re not able to identify alumni to network with.

If you pay for a more advanced LinkedIn account, you can do a people search and filter the results by a particular group, such as your alumni network.