Cold messaged an alum I'd never met on LinkedIn and it turned into the referral that actually got me an interview

Saw someone from my school working at a company I wanted in at, no mutual connections, never met them. Sent a short message, mentioned the shared school, asked one specific question about the team instead of asking for a job outright. They answered, we talked for fifteen minutes on a call a week later, and near the end they offered to refer me without me asking. Every other application that month went into a black hole, this one got a recruiter call within four days. Still surprised a cold message with zero connection worked better than any application I filled out.