How to Use an Alumni Network You’ve Just Joined

How-To Guide · 6 min read

Key Takeaways

Start in your first year, while the information can still change what you decide to do.
Search by what people are doing now, since the interesting paths are rarely direct ones from a degree.
Ask for a specific piece of knowledge, not for help, which is what makes a reply easy to write.
Regional chapters are the part that matters if you intend to work in a different country.

In This Guide

Get access before you need it
Search by destination, not by degree
Ask for knowledge rather than for help
Use the regional chapters deliberately
Report back, and become findable yourself

The short answer: get into the directory in your first year, search for people doing work you are curious about, whatever they studied, and ask each of them one specific question they are uniquely placed to answer. The rest of this guide is how each step works in practice.

Get Access Before You Need It

Alumni directories are frequently open to current students and almost never advertised to them. Find out in your first term whether you have access, and if the platform is restricted to graduates, ask the careers service or alumni office whether current students can be sponsored in. The answer is often yes and almost nobody asks.

The reason to do this early is that the network’s most valuable output is information for decisions, and decisions about modules, placements and specialisms happen in the first two years. A network discovered in final year can only help with the job search, which is the narrowest use of it.

Pro TipAsk the alumni office directly what current students are entitled to. Their answer is usually more generous than the website suggests.

Search by Destination, Not by Degree

The instinct is to search for people who studied your subject, which returns the least interesting set: mostly people who did the obvious thing with it. Searching instead by industry, employer, job function or city returns the people whose paths you could not have guessed, and those are the ones to talk to.

This also surfaces the routes nobody describes in a prospectus. A graduate in your subject now working in something apparently unrelated has a story about how that transition happened, and that story is frequently more useful than a straightforward account of the expected career.

Ask for Knowledge Rather Than for Help

A message asking for advice, help or mentorship puts the burden of working out what to offer onto the recipient, which is why so many go unanswered. A message asking one specific question they can answer from experience is easy to reply to, and people reply to what is easy.

Reference the shared institution briefly, say what you are trying to work out, and ask the narrow question. Three or four sentences is right. A long message signals that a long reply is expected, which turns a small question into a commitment. Keep it small enough to answer over a coffee.

Pro Tip“I’m trying to work out whether X or Y is the better route into this, and you’ve done X” is answerable in two minutes, which is why it gets answered.

Use the Regional Chapters Deliberately

If you intend to work somewhere other than where you studied, the chapter in that city is the most valuable part of the entire network. It is a group of people who have already made the move you are considering, in the specific place you are considering it, and who share an obvious connection with you.

Contact the chapter organiser first, ahead of individual members. Organisers are self-selected connectors who volunteered precisely because they enjoy this, and they can usually point you at the two or three people to speak to first, which saves you guessing from a directory listing.

Report Back, and Become Findable Yourself

When someone’s answer changes what you do, tell them. It costs a paragraph, it is the reason they will reply to you again, and it is the step that turns a single exchange into a contact you have.

Then keep your own directory entry current, including while you are still a student. Networks work because people can be found, and the graduate two years behind you will need exactly the information you now hold about the route you have just taken.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it acceptable to contact someone very senior?

Yes, though calibrate the ask. A short, specific question is reasonable to send to almost anyone; a request for an ongoing relationship is better directed at people closer to your own stage, who are also more likely to remember the decisions you are facing.

What if the network has nobody in my field?

Widen to adjacent fields and to function rather than sector, since skills transfer more than industries do. Where a network has no relevant depth, that is useful information about the institution, and worth weighing if you are still choosing between offers.

How many people should I contact at once?

A few at a time, with different questions, rather than the same message to a long list. Identical messages are recognisable as such, and a single thoughtful exchange is worth more than ten unanswered ones.

Should I use the official platform or a public professional network?

The alumni platform first, because the shared connection is explicit there and the person has opted in to being contacted. A public professional network is a reasonable fallback if somebody is not on the official directory, provided you still reference the connection.