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AKA 'pedigree hiring'.

S/he must be good because s/he worked for X known company.

It's a pervasive bias, especially in tech where certain brands are lionised to the point of nearly becoming sacred. Brand association alone will get many a person through an assessment process with sometimes with the complete abandonment of any semblance of due diligence.

Remember the Scott Thompson scandal? Basic stuff like lying on your resume did not stop Yahoo! from making a pedigree hire. Must be good because PayPal.

We have to all work very hard to educate ourselves that we are all inherently susceptible to this bias.




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