How to Find Former Employees of Any Company on LinkedIn (2025 Guide)

You want to know who worked at a specific company on LinkedIn?

Whether you're doing sales, recruiting, or just curious, LinkedIn gives you access to the people who worked in a company.

In this guide, I’ll show you:

• See former employees on LinkedIn

• Use Sales Navigator to filter them with precision

• Export their data (with emails) using GiveMeLeads

• Find high-quality leads using advanced filters

Let’s dive in.

How to Find Former Employees on LinkedIn

Here’s the simple way to do it, without any paid tool.

Step 1: Open LinkedIn and search the company page

Go to LinkedIn.

In the search bar, type the name of the company you’re targeting. Let’s take “Salesforce” as an example.

Then, click on the right company in the dropdown list.

Step 2: Use "All Filters" in LinkedIn Search

A bonus method you can use is to leverage the "All filters" function in a LinkedIn search.

For that you have to:

1. Type the company name into the LinkedIn search bar

2. Click on "All filters"

3. Scroll down and select the company under "Past company"

4. Click on "Show results"

If you want to find qualified leads, you can use some other filters like:

• Connections (1st, 2nd or 3rd connection degree)

• Current company

• Locations

• School

• Industry

• Profile language

• Keywords (first name, last name, job title, etc)

💡 Pro tip: You can’t find the company in the list? Just click “+ Add a company” and type it manually. LinkedIn will include it in your filters.

Why Finding Former Employees Is a Smart Move

Here’s why it matters:

• Market research: Former employees often speak more freely about the company’s internal structure, tools, and culture. Great for getting honest insights.

• Lead generation: They may have moved into decision-making roles elsewhere—perfect for warm outreach with a shared context.

• Recruiting: If someone left a competitor recently, they could be open to new opportunities and already trained in your niche.

• Networking: Former employees can introduce you to current team members or leadership—without the gatekeeping.

How to Find Former Employees with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

The best way to find former employees is to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

You can apply advanced filters, segment the contacts, and access way more valuable data than what you get from LinkedIn.

📺 If you don't know how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, no problem. You can check this in-depth tutorial:

Now it's time for a step-by-step guide to see the current employees in any company.

Step 1: Go to the Lead Filter page

When you're on the homepage on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you just have to click on "Lead filters".

Step 2: Select the company on the "Current company" Filter

As you can see, there are a lot of advanced filters on this lead page.

The one you’re looking for is “Past Company”. This filter lets you see people who worked in a company.

So for that:

1. Type the company

2. Click on "Include"

💡 Pro tip: You can add multiple companies if you want.

Step 3: Split your search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

With Sales Navigator, you can only see 2500 results.

So if you have more than 2500 people in a company, you need to split your search into several chunks.

The best way to do that is to use some filters like:

• Company headcount

• Geography

• Years of experience

• Years in current company

• Etc

Then, you save your searches in lead lists.

📺 If you want to have a video tutorial on how to split your search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

How to Export Former Employees Using Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator doesn’t let you export directly. But here’s what you can do:

1. Run your lead search using filters (as described above)

2. Use a tool like GiveMeLeads to extract those profiles

3. Export them with verified emails and enrich the data

Step 1: Export the employees of a company with GiveMeLeads

It's time to export the former employees of a company into a clean CSV file.

The first thing you have to do is to is to sign-up on GiveMeLeads.

You do the quick onboarding, and then you just have to give the Sales Navigator URLs.

Finally, you can start to export your connections.

Here's how:

1. Click "New Leads Export" in the GiveMeLeads dashboard

2. Select the number of leads you want

3. Check if you want to get the leads once or on a regular basis (you can select the day of the week you want to receive your file)

4. Confirm and start the extraction

5. Wait while Givemeleads processes your request

Step 5: Download Your List of Leads

The final step is getting your lead file:

1. Once processing is complete, you'll get a notification

2. Go to your GiveMeLeads dashboard

3. Find your export

4. Click "Open in Sheets" to get your file

   
   

   

The file includes:

• First Name

• Last Name

• LinkedIn URL

• Company

• Job title

• Verified email (if available)

📺 If you want to check how to export leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

Advanced Techniques When Exporting Former Employees

1. Use Filters to Find Your Best Leads

Let’s be honest: you don’t want to reach out to everyone in a company.

Some are interns. Others have no buying power. And some just aren't a fit.

To focus only on high-quality leads, you need to refine your search with filters.

Here are a few that work great:

• Current job title (use Boolean operators like AND, OR, NOT for better targeting)

• Years of experience: At least 1+ year = stability

• Geography (of the leads, not the company)

• Viewed your profile recently

• Posted on LinkedIn: Active people = more replies

• Etc

That way, you only focus on people who are interesting for you.

2. Create a Saved Search

Once you’ve applied your filters and found the right former employees, don’t start from scratch every time.

Instead, save your search in Sales Navigator.

This way, anytime a new former employee fits your criteria, LinkedIn will notify you, so you’re always the first to reach out.

💡 Pro tip: Use this to stay ahead of your competitors and be the first to message new hires or decision-makers.

📺 If you want to see exactly how to create a lead search, I made a YouTube video showing every step:

FAQ

How to Find Current Employees on LinkedIn

If you want to see people who are currently working at a specific company, LinkedIn can help you do that easily.

On LinkedIn (free version):

You can use the "All filters" function in a LinkedIn search.

For that you have to:

1. Type the company name into the LinkedIn search bar

2. Click on "All filters"

3. Scroll down and select the company under "Current company"

4. Click on "Show results"

You can filter this list manually by using filters like:

• Connections

• Locations

• School

• Industry

• Profile language

• Keywords (first name, last name, job title, etc)

On Sales Navigator (best option):

1. Open Sales Navigator

2. Click on “Lead Filters”

3. Scroll to “Current Company” and enter the company name

You’ll now get a clean list of the employees of a company.`

Then you can export these people using GiveMeleads.

Can I message former employees directly on LinkedIn?

Yes. Once you’ve found them, you can send a connection request or InMail.

If you have their email (with GiveMeLeads), you can reach them directly without LinkedIn limits.

Can I see when someone left a company?

LinkedIn doesn’t show an exact departure date, but if their “end date” is public, you can estimate.