yeah, alumni connections rock, but only for my ivy league degree, the big ten doesn't work the same way...

being a leed-ap also gives me access to people and directories who's who...

best trick is to use the alumni directories or leed-ap directory to find random people inside an office - versus the sanitized info published on a firms website.

I've certainly seen the value of alumni connections. Both my firm's owners are University of Cincinnati alumni, and we've had a lot of UC co-op students come through the office. Two former UC co-ops are now full-time employees, and the firm has been able to leverage its strong connections to the university to go after a few projects on the UC campus, despite our location in Chicago.

speaking of undergrad connections, j, are you working downtown? if so, let's grab a bite. email me.

i just emailed you.

Go Gators! Beer and cheap nachos always work.

i think i got my first job from high school because of alumn loyalty. i had mentioned in my "cover letter" (didn't really cover anything because i didn't really have a resume at the time) that i was planning on attending iit in the fall. both partners were iit grads and i'm pretty sure thats why they brought me in. it was an extremely rewarding experience. i think the smaller your school, the more it may be apparent.

the farther you are away from your school and the fewer alumni there are in your area, the more an alumni connection can make a 'connection'.

my professor has an annual old-boys get together where former students come in to meet up and show off their work. Since he is of starchitect lineage at ivy school his students tend to do impressive work. they fairly often ask him to send graduates to fill positions, and there is certainly some networking going on...especially after more than 20 years of educating japan's finest...

on more personal note, i am in program at my uni through connection with prof at my school in canada. she did phd under hiroshi hara and called her old classmates, who are now teaching and leading the archi-scene here...and they guided me to my current prof. i still had to do the entrance exam and go through a fairly arduous application process for scholarship (took one year), but without that alumni connection i would have gotten nowhere.

connections are important. so is helping people when, and as often, as you can. helping folk from same uni somehow just feels that much better (kinda tribal feeling isn't that?)...

well, the last two jobs i've gotten were through alumni. i went to a big ten school. i don't think anyone cares where you went to school once you start working, however. i think it has less to do with a 'good 'ol boy' club and more to do with knowing where to start. sometimes architects look to their alma mater when seeking fresh meat, simply because that's the first thing that comes to their minds. i don't have any connections to anyone from ugrad.

i'm actually one of only 5 alumni from my grad school in my entire state. thus my firm already has almost half of all of them.

having graduated from michigan and now working in detroit, i sometimes feel like my michigan degree has been a disadvantage working so close to ann arbor. most interns in detroit it seems went to lawrence tech or university of detroit. they do all their networking in school and if they're good, have their pick of local firms. umich grads have almost no contact with the city in their education (at least far less than the school thinks they do) and then most graduates move out of state looking for bigger and better things (unlike kids at the smaller schools who tend to be lifers). there are always local politics like that wherever you go.

I probably got one internship indirectly because the boss was an alum of my school. I was out of work and had resorted to cold-calling all the firms in my area. This guy said that an intern wasn't what he needed right then, but when he found out I went to SC he kept me talking for 15 minutes about the school, football, whatever. Several weeks later he called me up and said "You know, I've changed my mind, I'd like you to come in for an interview."

Now on the whole I got the interview because he was impressed that I had the guts to cold call every architect in Long Beach and got the job because had the necessary skills and would work for an absurdly low amount of money, but the fact is that I don't think he would have remembered me if it hadn't been for that 15 minute conversation about SC.

Well I may as well weigh in 'cause half the post is people who went to school with me (hi guys) and someone mentioned UF where I went to undergrad...I think going to a big school with a huge alumni base has its +/- factors....people often associate the school with the football team, or someone who worked for them before. If you went to good schools, then hopefully there is good exposure. But I can say from both U of M and U of F walking into an office for an interview you can bet that the person was taught by, went to school with or has worked with someone who you interacted with. That can be all it takes to get the person interested, and jobs are all about getting the guy across the desk to think of you as a person, not that piece of paper he is holding, that you spent too much time checking for typo's. The world of architecture is very small...(perhaps 3 degrees of separation)
BTW Saurman, 5 TCAUP? do you feel special?

Studying at the same school is followed by working at the same firm. Good people are good people, and when two people recognise that they share common history, and thus probably some common future, it's much easier to say yes (to anything).

Using connections isn't using them in the pejorative sense, it is strengthening them. Much like stealing ideas isn't theft, it's just propogating the meme. Good ideas and good people will get ahead, together.