Every NYU student is told the alumni network is huge. Almost nobody is told what to do with it, so most people do nothing until the semester they need a job.
Start narrow, not wide
A search for "NYU alumni in finance" returns thousands of names and no useful next step.
A search for "Tisch 2014, now at a documentary studio in Brooklyn" returns four people, and each of them has an obvious reason to reply to you.
Overlap is what makes a cold message warm. Same school, same programme, same study away site, same hometown — any one of them is enough.
Where to look
- The Wasserman Center — career services, and the front door to formal mentoring programmes.
- School-specific alumni groups — usually far more responsive than university-wide ones.
- Regional and industry clubs — useful if you're job hunting outside New York.
- Our own alumni directory — a browsable starting point when you want to see what a career path actually looked like.
The message that gets answered
Keep it to four lines: who you are, the specific overlap, one concrete question, and a fifteen-minute ask.
Do not attach a CV to a first message. Do not ask someone to "have a look at my profile." Ask something only they can answer — how they moved from one role to the next, what they'd skip if they started again.
Then close the loop. Send a short note a month later saying what you did with their advice. This is the single most neglected step, and it's the one that turns a contact into an advocate.
If you're the alum
Answer the students. You'll spend fifteen minutes and buy yourself a reputation as someone worth knowing.
Start before you need it
Build the habit in your second year, not your last semester. It also helps to have a plan for the money side — see the cost and aid guide — and to know that some NYU paths, like construction management, are almost entirely network-driven hiring markets.
Editor's note: This is an independent guide and is not affiliated with or endorsed by New York University. Alumni services, platforms and programme names change. Confirm current offerings directly with NYU.