Finding someone’s LinkedIn profile can be useful for connecting with professional contacts, researching companies, or looking up someone you’ve met. LinkedIn has over 740 million members, so chances are high the person you’re looking for has a profile. There are a few ways to find someone’s LinkedIn profile – by searching their name on LinkedIn, using advanced search filters, searching by company or school, or using Google. Read on for step-by-step instructions on the various methods for finding someone’s LinkedIn profile.
Search for their name on LinkedIn
The easiest way to find someone’s LinkedIn profile is to simply search for their name on www.linkedin.com. Here are the steps:
- Go to www.linkedin.com and log into your account if you have one. You don’t need an account to search for people though.
- Type the person’s full name into the search bar at the top of the page. Make sure to use their full name, including middle name or middle initial if known, for best results.
- Press enter or click the search icon. This will pull up results for any LinkedIn members with that name.
- Scan through the results to see if any seem like they could be the person you’re searching for. LinkedIn will display each member’s profile photo, current title/company, location, shared connections, and more.
- Click “See all results for [name]” at the bottom to view more profiles if needed.
- Click on any profile that seems like it could be a match to view the full profile and confirm it’s the right person.
Searching only by name may return many results. You can combine the name with location, company, job title, school, or other details if known to help narrow down the possibilities.
Keep in mind you will only be able to view limited profile information for LinkedIn members you’re not connected to. You’ll see their photo, headline, current position/company, education, and a few other sections. Connect with them to view their full profile.
Use LinkedIn’s advanced search
LinkedIn has advanced search features that allow you to filter by criteria like location, current company, job title, school attended, and more. Here are the steps for using LinkedIn’s advanced search:
- Go to www.linkedin.com and log in if you have an account.
- Click “Search” along the top toolbar.
- Click “Advanced” next to the search bar.
- Enter the person’s name into the “First name” and “Last name” fields.
- Optional – Fill in any other criteria you know such as location, current company, past company, school, job title, etc. The more fields you fill in, the more your results can be filtered down.
- Click “Search”.
- Browse through the results and click on any profiles that seem to match the person you’re searching for.
Using LinkedIn’s advanced search with additional criteria can help narrow down your results when searching for someone with a common name.
Search by their company or school
If you know the company someone works for or school they attended, you can search directly by that criteria. Here’s how:
Search by company
- Go to www.linkedin.com and log in if you have an account.
- Type the company name into the search bar at the top of the page.
- Click on the company page when it appears in the dropdown results.
- Scroll down to the Employees section on the company page. Here you can browse profiles of people who work at that company.
- Optional – Use the filters or search bar within the Employees section to narrow down by criteria like location, first name, last name, job title, etc.
- Click on profiles that could match the person you’re searching for to view the full profile.
Search by school
- Go to www.linkedin.com and log in if you have an account.
- Type the school name into the search bar at the top of the page.
- Click on the school page when it appears in the dropdown results.
- Scroll down to the Alumni section on the school page. Here you can browse profiles of alumni from that school.
- Optional – Use the filters or search bar within the Alumni section to narrow down by criteria like graduation year, first name, last name, location, etc.
- Click on profiles that could match the person you’re searching for to view the full profile.
Searching by company or school can be a great way to track down a connection when you know where they work or attended school but not their name.
Search LinkedIn using Google
You can also search for someone’s LinkedIn profile using Google. Here are the steps:
- Go to www.google.com.
- Try searching using a query such as:
- “John Smith” LinkedIn
- “John Smith” site:linkedin.com
- John Smith “New York University” site:linkedin.com
- The results will display LinkedIn profiles that match your search terms.
- Click through to any results that seem like they could match the person you’re looking for.
Google will scour LinkedIn public profiles for any that match your keywords. This works best when you can combine the person’s name with their company, location, school, job title or other unique criteria.
Tips for finding the right profile
Here are some additional tips to help confirm you’ve found the right person’s LinkedIn profile:
- Check the profile photo carefully to confirm it matches who you’re looking for.
- Verify employment history, education, location, and other details line up with what you know about the person.
- Look for shared connections displayed on the profile – having connections in common is a strong indicator you’ve found the right person.
- Search for any mentions of their name on Google along with words like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to find corroborating information across networks.
- If you’ve found a profile but aren’t certain it’s the right person, consider reaching out by name to double check.
Being methodical and looking for verifying details can help avoid mistaken identity issues when trying to find someone’s LinkedIn profile.
What to do if you can’t find their LinkedIn profile
If you’ve searched extensively and can’t find any LinkedIn profile for someone, here are some things you can try:
- Search for any social media profiles they may have on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to find additional identifying details you can use in your LinkedIn search.
- Search public records like white pages listings or local newspaper articles to uncover alternate spellings of their name, maiden name, etc. that could help your search.
- Ask mutual connections if they are connected on LinkedIn and can share a direct link to the person’s profile.
- Use tools like Clearbit Connect or ContactOut that can uncover work emails and then potentially surface a LinkedIn profile associated with that email address.
- As a last resort, try searching variations of their name (initials, nickname, maiden name, etc.) directly on Google and combing through results pages.
Expanding your search to other channels and getting creative with name variations can sometimes help surface hard-to-find LinkedIn profiles.
Is there a way to find a LinkedIn profile with just an email address?
There is no direct way to search for a LinkedIn profile using only an email address. LinkedIn profiles are searchable by name only. However, you can use some tricks to try and uncover a profile using just an email:
- Search the email address on Google, which may surface LinkedIn profiles using that email in the public description section.
- Plug the email into a tool like ContactOut or Clearbit Connect which will try to find public profiles associated with that email address.
- Check the email signature on any messages from that person to see if their LinkedIn profile is hyperlinked there.
- Look up the person’s name in your email contacts to potentially uncover their full name, company, or other keywords you can use to find their profile.
- Use Boolean search strings like “John site:linkedin.com” or “John @company.com site:linkedin.com” on Google.
While not foolproof, these tactics can help turn an email address into a LinkedIn profile in some cases.
What information is visible when you’re not connected to someone?
When viewing a LinkedIn profile for someone you’re not connected to, you’ll be able to see a limited version of their profile:
- Profile photo
- Name
- Headline and current position/company
- Location
- Industry
- Number of connections in common
- Summary section
- Experience section (but only titles and companies, no descriptions)
- Education section
- Skills section
- Groups, volunteer experience, certifications, and a few other sections
You won’t be able to see their full profile, contact info, connections, recommendations, posts, etc. Connecting with them gives you access to the full profile.
Pro tips for searching LinkedIn
Take advantage of these advanced search techniques to master searching for profiles on LinkedIn:
- Use quotes around multi-word names like “John Smith” to search for exact matches.
- Try variations: no quotation marks, a middle initial, a nickname, etc. if not finding exact name matches.
- Leverage LinkedIn’s advanced search filters to narrow by location, company, title, school, etc.
- Search by current or past company names to uncover employees.
- Search by school to uncover alumni.
- Use LinkedIn name + Google to uncover additional identifying details.
- Check shared connections and profile details carefully to confirm matches.
Following these pro tips will help you become a power searcher on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
Tracking down someone’s LinkedIn profile can be fast and easy in many cases. Search by their name, company, school or use Google for the best results. Pay close attention to verifying details to avoid mistaken identity. If all else fails, get creative with search strings and tools like ContactOut to try and associate an email address with a profile. Master these techniques for finding LinkedIn profiles and make your next search a success.