I was reading the Interview thread here, and one of the suggestions for an entry-level interview was to get to know people on the inside. Good advice, but the suggestion was to look up if any alumni from your college work there. That struck me as quite odd… If someone messaged me saying “Hey, we went to the same school, and I wanted to get the inside perspective on the place you work”, my immediate response would be “Who are you again?”
Related, I got a PM on another board from someone that looked at my username and messaged me saying “Hey, you went to Georgia Tech? I want to make sure before I network with you”. Which I found creepy and mildly insulting. I have no idea who this guy is, I don’t see why I should care that we went to the same school. Plus, he’s rather obviously insinuating that he only wants to talk to me because he thinks he can use me to help his career.
Then there’s that University of Phoenix ad. The young graduate is at his first interview, and he’s obviously nervous, but then then interviewer comes out and it turns out he went to UoP too! Clearly this guy now has the job in the bag since they went to the same school! Because, um, were there qualifications for this job or is hiring based on nepotism?
Basically, the whole idea of “the alumni network” seems odd to me. Just because I went to the same school as someone doesn’t mean anything to me, and certainly is not going to cause me to give them a positive recommendation. Now, if I know them personally, or we have worked together, sure. If a friend of mine recommends them, I might look at a resume in more detail; if they went to the same school, they get the same treatment as someone who went to any other school. Saying you went to the same university as me gets a “yea, you and 100,000 other people, so what?”
Is the alumni networking really a thing, or is it one of those suggestions that people make when there’s not much else going for the person?
It’s a very polarized thing. To some people this absolutely does matter, and to some it’s of no importance at all.
Personally I couldn’t care less if someone went to my school. Thousands and thousands of people did. But I’ve met people - from my school, too - to whom it’s like you served in the Marines with them or something.
I am not precisely sure why some people attach a huge import to this and some do not. I’ve never noticed a pattern to it.
As to the networking thing, that’s something that college students are actually taught to do; call people they don’t know, establish a vague connection or just ask them questions about their job, and then ask for a referral. This is an actual tactic being taught by actual teachers and it absolutely flummoxes me because I cannot think of any person or company with whom such a thing would work. But it must work somewhere because it’s been taught at colleges for 15-20 years, at least.
Presumably, the fact that you both chose and graduated from the same school means that you share some sort of common interest or similar personality. Also, if it’s a smaller school, a recent graduate who’d gone to the same school reassures an older alum that their choice was good and that the quality and reputation has persisted.
I think this is one of those things where some people are into it, and other people don’t care about it all. Some schools might have a greater percentage of alumni who are invested in it (and obviously, it’s in their best interest to promote this as a whole thing that people do), but even at these colleges, there are still people who aren’t interested in the least.
The (older) alumni who are interested will make themselves known - if they already like doing things like participating in alumni events, maybe joining a social or sports club for alumni in another town, keeping up with alumni news, they are probably doing things like volunteering their information for (newer) alumni in their profession to contact them. If the person’s name appears in a list for suggested networking, it’s because they WANT to be involved in this way.
My brother tends to be like this, I know he’s involved in his alumni network and meets with (newer) alumni who relocate to his area and is happy to give them general advice about being new to the city, and general advice about his profession. He’s not actually hiring people based on the alumni connection, though.
On the other hand, if you have to track someone down to discover an alumni connection, chances are they have zero interest in having any sort of networking relationship.
There was a guy at work who went to a college in Indiana and had his whole office decorated with banners and signs from that college including the “Ask me about X College”. He was in his 40s which made me just assume that that college is where he either first got laid/met his wife. No one should be that excited about their alma mater 20 years later.
That sounds so bizarre! I never heard that when I was in college. I can say that anyone that tries this probably get hung up on more often than not.
At a school with tens of thousands of students? Too many people for there to really be any more similarity than “hey we have the same major and went to the same school”
And how did that work? “Oh, I see you went to the same school as I, let’s dispense with this silly interview and go straight to swilling brandy together”.
Well, I guess it’s obvious I’m not one of those people. I have a hard time seeing someone that would WANT to get bothered by young grads like that.
Colleges want it to be the case because that is a marketing thing for them. If it is well-known that FU alumni take care of their own then that might be an attractive thing for some students.
Personally, I get a bit squicked out when someone is a bit too proud of their alma mater. Tell me what makes you special, not what’s so great about your school.
I also know too much about my own alma mater, so a certain amount of skepticism is warranted for people from there.
I graduated about 25 years ago, so if I were interviewing a recent graduate, I might want to find out how much things have changed. (“How did you like living in that dorm?” “Is Professor Kingsfield still scaring students?”) So aside from satisfying my curiosity, it can serve as an icebreaker. When I was job-hunting, I read that you want to stand out from the sea of other applicants, so this can help. And it helps in that the person interviewing you is familiar with how rigorous (or not) the program is at your school.
No, he just made it clear to his division heads that they should preferentially recruit from our school. Also, after an interview, I was later asked to come back for a second interview for a different position - one that fit my skills much better. I’m sure that after the first time, they knew I was good for something (they just weren’t sure what). I’m guessing that one of the department heads said to him “hey, there’s this kid we like, but we don’t think he’s right for this position, what do you think?” Knowing that I went to the same school (and had similar educational backgrounds), made him comfortable in arranging a second interview.
All speculation, of course, but there were a LOT of alums at that company…
Back when I went to college there was only one place in the country where you could study my major. Being from one of the centers which were created after the 1990s university reform and claiming that your school was the first one where that major could be studied is an automatic black mark with me - it means you don’t know the story of your own (our common) major; also, it’s highly likely that there will be subjects you studied without knowing why (a consequence of studying under a curriculum which was not developed by your own teachers, but copied from mine).
If you’re from my school, there is information codified in your grades: took a long time to graduate because of a fail in a lab course? “Personality/behavior problems”. Non-round grades in certain subjects? You passed them on the first try. You give me certain figures, I check with Records and they tell me something which doesn’t match? You are so not hired.
Frankly, if someone applying for a job in our lab boasted in an interview of being an alum from my college, I’d opt for especially rigorous drug testing.
Also, it’s likely that you shared similar experiences. For example, both of you probably recognize school landmarks and things that happened there, and what the quirks of the campus were. If you went to the school during different times, you can catch up on how the school has changed. Wow, I didn’t know that there used to be a statue in the middle of Old Quad! Did you know that they finally tore down Williamson Hall and put in a larger, more modern building that they’re calling “Jones Hall” after the new Governor?
I worked hard to get into the school I went to, and it’s a school that prides itself on having a very strong alumni base. That alumni base persists because it’s a very valuable and rewarding network to contribute to and to benefit from. If my wife were to be relocated to nearly any major city in the world, the first thing I’d do in order to start finding a new job would be to plug into the alumni club in that city and start networking. It would open a great deal of doors to me that I normally wouldn’t even consider knocking on.
Now, all that does is open some doors. It certainly doesn’t get me a job or even a solid reference. That’s on me to demonstrate my qualifications for.
Wouldn’t you be opening yourself up to problems if the school changes? I mean, all institutions change. If they start giving round grades to everyone or make the lab courses much more difficult or whatever, suddenly you’re rejecting people for no reason.
The lying about grades thing, I 100% agree with.
Any reason in particular, or just the generalities in the thread?
Small liberal arts school, yeah - especially one of the “need a high SAT to get in” schools. My husband was another who had doors open because he introduced himself to alumni. There is an expectation at that sort of place that one of the things you are buying for $40k a year is introductions to other people who spent $40k a year (or its 20 year ago equivalent.)
Probably depends a lot on the school. MIT has some very active alumni clubs, and they are great places to network. I was involved in the Princeton one and met lots of famous people.
Having gone to the top state school can also get you an edge in that state.
I’d be happy to help new MIT grads, but judging from their resumes they don’t need it since they are all smarter than me.
Oh - and the U of P ad mentioned in the OP is different - it is trying to convince the listener that not all U of P grads end up broke and unemployed.
