LinkedIn Alumni Tool: How to Find Alumni for Sales and Recruiting

The LinkedIn alumni tool lives in the Alumni tab on a school's LinkedIn Page, in the left-side navigation according to LinkedIn. It shows where graduates work today and gives you access to their profiles. For prospecting, people search with the “School” filter is often the more direct route, because you can combine it with company, location and industry.

A shared school is one of the few points of contact a stranger can place instantly. Below: what the Alumni tab does according to LinkedIn, how to filter alumni precisely, and how to reach out to them in sales, recruiting and your job search. As of October 2026.

Where to find the LinkedIn alumni tool

The alumni view isn't attached to your profile but to the school's Page. LinkedIn describes it like this: “The Alumni tab on a LinkedIn school Page provides high-level insights about the alumni of a school, as well as access to more detailed professional profiles they've shared. It's located in the left-side navigation.” Source: LinkedIn Help: Alumni tab on a LinkedIn Page, accessed October 3, 2026.

To get there, open your school's LinkedIn Page, for example via search, and select the Alumni tab in the navigation. The view only exists on school Pages. A company Page has no Alumni tab. According to the same help page, admins can contact LinkedIn to request converting a company Page into a school Page to enable it.

What the Alumni tab can and can't do

According to LinkedIn, the Alumni tab lets you:

• see what alumni in your field have accomplished since graduation,
• identify alumni in your field and reach out to them for their industry expertise and career opportunities,
• learn about job opportunities and mentoring partnerships.

LinkedIn names one limitation explicitly: “The option to search and filter alumni information by the year is no longer available on the Alumni tab.” If an older guide tells you to filter by graduation year, it describes an old version.

LinkedIn's help page doesn't list which filters the view offers today, so we don't list them here either. For targeted lists you're better off with people search anyway, because its filters are documented.

How to search for alumni on LinkedIn with people search

Regular people search has a “School” filter under “All filters”. According to LinkedIn, you can combine it with “Degree of connections”, “Locations”, “Current company”, “Past company”, “Industry”, “Profile language” and “Keywords”. Source: LinkedIn Help: Search for people on LinkedIn, accessed October 3, 2026.

Here's how to build an alumni list for prospecting:

1. Type a term into the search bar, such as a job title, and click “See all results”.
2. Select the “People” filter at the top.
3. Open “All filters” and add your school under “School”.
4. Narrow it down to your target accounts with “Current company”, “Locations” and “Industry”.
5. Save the search so you can come back to it. A free account can save up to three searches, according to LinkedIn Help.

LinkedIn now also understands natural language searches. The help page gives “People I know who went to the University of Alabama” as an example. According to LinkedIn, this kind of search doesn't support quotes. If you need exact matches, use Boolean search. Our free Boolean Search Generator builds the search string for you.

Open tool

If you also want to find alumni outside LinkedIn, for example through Google, see the LinkedIn X-ray search guide.

Alumni as a warm opener in sales

In B2B sales, a shared school is an honest reason to start a conversation. It's instantly verifiable, applies to both sides and needs no pretext. It works best when you mention it briefly and then get to the point. Three sentences about college days before your actual ask waste the advantage.

Three patterns that work:

• Alumni at your target account. “School” plus “Current company” shows who at your dream account studied where you did. Often not the decision-maker, but a good first contact who can tell you who is.
• Alumni in your target industry. “School” plus “Industry” gives you a list to work through over several weeks.
• Alumni as introducers. An alum who knows the decision-maker can introduce you. Ask with a ready-made blurb they only need to forward. How to ask for an introduction, with templates, is covered in LinkedIn mutual connections: how to get introduced.

Alumni in recruiting

For recruiters, your own school and schools with the right degree program are a source of candidates who aren't actively looking. The “Past company” filter combined with “School” finds people with the right studies and the right experience. Outreach works the same way as in sales: the school as the opener, then the role in one sentence. More on this approach in Active sourcing on LinkedIn.

4 message templates with a school connection

The templates fit into a connection request note or work as the first message after acceptance. On a free LinkedIn account the note can have up to 200 characters, and according to the current help page you can add a note to only three requests per month. Source: LinkedIn Help: Personalize invitations to connect, accessed October 3, 2026.

Template 1: Sales, connection request

Hi [First name], we both studied at [School]. These days I work with [industry] on [topic] and would love to connect.

Template 2: Sales, first message after acceptance

Thanks for connecting, [First name]. As a fellow [School] grad, I'm always glad to meet people from there. Quick note on why I'm reaching out: we help [industry] [result]. Is that on the agenda at [Company] right now, or who would be the right person to talk to?

Template 3: Recruiting

Hi [First name], also [School], also [Degree]. We're hiring a [Role] at [Company], and your path through [Past company] is exactly what we need. Up for a short, no-pressure chat?

Template 4: Job search

Hi [First name], like you I studied at [School], and I'm interested in [Team] at [Company]. Would you have ten minutes to tell me what getting started there looks like?

Alumni tab, people search or Sales Navigator?

All three routes lead to a school's graduates. They differ in what you can do with the list afterward.

Source for Sales Navigator: Sales Navigator Help: Search in Sales Navigator, accessed October 3, 2026. How to set up Sales Navigator is covered in How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Turn your alumni list into a target audience in CompLeadly

CompLeadly runs as a desktop app on your own computer and works with the searches you build in LinkedIn. A LinkedIn people search, a Sales Navigator search or a saved Sales Navigator search becomes a target audience.

Sales

Your alumni search at a target account becomes a target audience. Profile visit, connection request with or without a note, first message after acceptance and follow-ups run as steps. Follow-ups stop as soon as someone replies. Placeholders for first name, company and position turn template 2 into a message for every contact.

Recruiting

With your own Recruiter license, CompLeadly also uses Recruiter Lite searches, pipelines and saved searches as target audiences. From Basic upward you work with one workflow per role. More on the CompLeadly for recruiters page.

Job seekers

A people search for alumni at the company you want to join becomes a target audience. Profile visit, connection request with a note, first message and follow-up already work in the free version, with daily limits such as 2 connection requests and 25 profile visits. How to make your profile visible first is covered in LinkedIn Open to Work.

You start with a free 10-day trial with all features. After that, your account switches automatically to the free version with basic features and a daily limit. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.