Your resume is just to get you that first interview. So the brand name matters for that. But during the interviews, its just all about your experiences.

Brand names can play a role if the interviewer also worked or went there.

 
Best Response

If you've got a brand name on your resume, that sends a signal to me re: quality ie you've succeeded to get through their selection processes. That's a positive starting point that helps get you into the room and also makes me (consciously or subconsciously) look on you with more charity and willingness to believe you're not just another applicant with a sweaty handshake and over-rehearsed lines.

It also tells me that you've had first hand experience in a bank, haven't had a 20-year-old-crisis of faith in your career plans and decided to go tech, basket weaving or something else instead, so I'm a little less at risk of you going through that and quitting in 12 months after you start working at my shop.

It also tells me that you've likely received some polish from that experience and so I don't have to worry as much about reeducating you for a professional context (eg less likely I'll need to tell you repeatedly not to pick your nose in the office*).

(* True story)

As for what you did when you worked for the brand name, it will be a mixture of factors like (but not limited to) how strong that brand name is in that space, how aware I am of that name's activity in that space (eg may be the #1 house in that product, but if I don't work in that space, I may not know that), what you did there and how well you can explain what you did there.

If I'm familiar with the brand name's work in that space and that name sees a reasonable amount of good flow, that leaves me with an assumption that you likely had good deal experience, at least until you displace that assumption by demonstrating otherwise when you discuss what you did there.

In short, it's very helpful to have a brand name in your resume. Not critical, but can make your life easier.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 
surferdude867:

What's wrong with picking your nose?

If you're sitting in my field of vision, pick your nose, inspect the product, then eat the product... that feels wrong to me.

Maybe I'm prejudiced.

But I just don't like that sort of sight.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 

Matters more for the initial screening to get the first interview. However, would be naive to assume that it doesn't have an effect on the next interviewer's perception of you (consciously or subconsciously) when they look at your resume right before/during the interview. That said, in an interview, much better to be able to talk about real work/impact at a no-name firm than have to bs about making copies/getting coffee at a brand name.

 

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