Reaching Out to Alumni

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If you went to college, you have an alumni network. Universities usually do an adequate job at keeping records on their alumni—after all, who else are they going to call for more donations, though in my experience, they don’t do a good job of promoting these resources to the alumni themselves. Most of the time they do exist, so it just takes a bit of time to search for them on your alma mater’s website.

As an alum, you’ve paid a ton of money to go to school, so make sure you get the most out of your investment.

Here are some resources your school might have:

• Official local alumni events in your area, or see if you can find your local event organizers to potentially organize an event together.

• Online database of all the people who graduated from your school—great resource if you’re looking to connect with someone.

• Informal groups that have been created and organized by your alums for professional development.

• Identity, affinity, and interest groups.

• Emailing lists informing you of (career or networking) events, latest school news, or alumni stories.

Usually there are tons of resources available for alums, and in my experience either they’re not well advertised or not very well maintained, but they do exist! You never know what famous alumni went to your school. If you went to different schools for your undergraduate and graduate degrees—your potential network is bigger by default.

Same advice applies if you’ve recently done a design or UX bootcamp or have gone through workshops. Although those networks tend to be smaller, they also tend to be more specialized. Leave no stone unturned. It’s highly likely there are resources out there at your disposal that you might not be aware of.