ALUMNI GUIDE
Harvard University alumni are one of your most powerful resources during recruiting. They are more likely to respond to your outreach, more willing to share advice, and more inclined to refer you than any other type of professional contact.
Location
Cambridge, MA
Business School
Harvard Business School
Notable Programs
Economics, Computer Science, Government
Shared alma mater is the single strongest predictor of whether a professional will respond to a student's cold email. Harvard alumni feel a genuine connection to current students and often want to pay forward the help they received when they were in your position. This is not theoretical: response rates for alumni outreach are typically 2 to 3 times higher than fully cold emails.
Beyond response rates, Harvard alumni can provide university-specific advice that is far more valuable than generic career guidance. They know which on-campus recruiting events matter, which professors have industry connections, which student organizations are most respected by recruiters, and how Harvard's reputation is perceived at their specific firm. This insider knowledge is impossible to get from any other source.
Harvard University graduates have a strong presence at many of the most competitive employers in consulting, banking, tech, and beyond. Here are some of the top companies where you will find Harvard alumni:
McKinsey
Goldman Sachs
Bain
This is just a sample. Harvard alumni are represented at hundreds of firms across every major industry. The key is to search for alumni at the specific companies you are targeting, rather than limiting yourself to the best-known names.
Most students start with their university's official alumni directory, and that is a reasonable first step. However, alumni directories are often incomplete, difficult to search by company or role, and rarely provide work email addresses. To find alumni at specific companies, you need a broader data source.
Offerloop lets you search across 2.2 billion verified professional contacts using natural language queries. Type something like "Harvard alumni at Goldman Sachs" or "Harvard University graduates working at McKinsey" and get a curated list of contacts with verified email addresses. You can filter by graduation year, current role, division, and location to find the most relevant people for your specific networking goals.
LinkedIn can also surface alumni connections, but it does not provide email addresses, and InMail messages have notoriously low response rates. For targeted, high-response-rate outreach, email consistently outperforms LinkedIn messaging.
Template 1: General Alumni Coffee Chat
Subject: Harvard student, would love 15 min on your experience at [Company]
___
Hi [First Name],
I'm a [year] at Harvard University studying [major]. I found your profile and saw that you're at [Company] working in [role/team]. As a fellow Harvard alum, I'd love to hear about your experience, especially how you made the transition from Harvard to [Company].
Would you have 15 minutes for a quick call in the next couple of weeks?
Best,
[Your Name]
Harvard '[Grad Year] | [Major]
Template 2: Division-Specific Outreach
Subject: Harvard [major], question about [Company]'s [Division]
___
Hi [First Name],
I'm a [year] at Harvard University studying [major], and I'm preparing for [industry] recruiting. I noticed you work in [Company]'s [Division] group and graduated from Harvard in [year]. I'm particularly interested in [Division] because [one genuine reason], and your perspective as someone who went through Harvard's recruiting pipeline would be incredibly valuable.
Would you be open to a brief 15-minute call?
Thank you,
[Your Name]
Harvard '[Grad Year] | [Major]
Template 3: Referral Request (After a Coffee Chat)
Subject: Thank you, [First Name], and a quick question
___
Hi [First Name],
Thank you again for taking the time to chat last [day]. Your advice about [specific topic] was really helpful, and I've already started [specific action you took based on their advice].
I'm planning to apply to [Company]'s [program/role] this [season]. If you're comfortable, would you be willing to submit a referral on my behalf? I completely understand if that's not something you're able to do. Either way, I really appreciate the time you've already given me.
Best,
[Your Name]
Harvard '[Grad Year] | [Major]
Start with your university's alumni directory if one exists. For a much broader search, Offerloop lets you search across 2.2 billion verified contacts with queries like "Harvard alumni at McKinsey" or "Harvard University graduates at Goldman Sachs." You can filter by company, role, graduation year, and location to find the most relevant alumni for your networking goals.
Lead with the shared connection. Mention that you are a current Harvard student, your year, and your major. Reference something specific about their career path that genuinely interests you. Ask for a 15-minute coffee chat, not a referral. The shared alma mater gives you a natural reason to reach out and significantly increases your response rate compared to fully cold outreach.
Start 3 to 6 months before your target recruiting season. For consulting and banking (which typically recruit in the fall), begin alumni outreach in late spring or early summer. For tech roles with rolling deadlines, start as early as possible. The earlier you build relationships, the more natural it will feel when you eventually need advice or referrals.
Plan to contact 30 to 50 alumni across your target companies over the course of a recruiting cycle. Expect roughly a 25 to 40 percent response rate (higher than cold outreach because of the shared school connection). This should yield 10 to 20 meaningful conversations, which is enough to build a strong network across 3 to 5 target firms.
Both have their place. The official alumni directory is useful for finding people who actively opted in, but it is often incomplete, hard to search, and does not provide work email addresses. Offerloop gives you access to a much larger database (2.2 billion contacts), lets you search by company and role, and provides verified email addresses so you can reach out directly.
Find verified email addresses for Harvard University graduates at your target companies. Send personalized outreach in seconds.
Get started free