The stealthy way to land your dream job

Cheesy? Laughable? No longer just an opportunity to mock the people you once hated in school, the much-maligned reunion is making a comeback.

And it could be to your advantage to attend, even if you feel a bit reluctant.

At her 15th Harvard Business School reunion, Carol Fishman Cohen confided to former classmates that she wanted to return to work after a decade of being a stay-at-home parent to her four young children.

Nine months later a fellow alumna (a Latin term used at some universities and colleges to describe a female graduate; a male graduate is an alumnus) called with a job opportunity.

"She said my skill set was a perfect match," says Cohen.

That assessment was entirely based on how she had performed at business school more than a decade earlier.

"That's when the concept of 'frozen in time' came to me.

The people you went to school with remember you as you were, even if your sense of self has diminished over time," she says.

BBC Capital asked career experts how to make the most of your uni or graduate school reunion.

Make your ambitions clear

When graduates are fishing for new job opportunities often a "first port of call will be their old school (university) before they start engaging with executive search firms or headhunters," according to Iain McLoughlin, former careers expert with ESADE business school in Barcelona, Spain, now UK and Europe director with VMock, an online CV review service.

Even if you're taking a career break or moving from one industry to another, Cohen suggests you make the most of a reunion.

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