The privilege of pedigree
In hiring, pedigree gets attention. Performance should get the job.
I’ve spent over 30 years in marketing leadership, and if there’s one truth I’ve seen again and again, it’s this: When a hiring manager scans a resume, the first thing they see isn’t your skills, your impact, or your leadership. They see your company logos.
If you’ve spent your career at Google, Nike, or Salesforce, that logo opens doors, sometimes regardless of what you actually accomplished there.
If you’ve built your career in mid-sized companies, startups, or industries without household name cachet, you start every interview at a deficit, no matter how much real work you’ve done.
This is the Privilege of Pedigree, and it’s time we talk about what it’s really costing companies.
What Big Logos Don’t Tell You
Working at a major brand doesn’t automatically make someone a better marketer, leader, or strategist. In fact, big companies create deep silos, Marketers specialize narrowly, own only a sliver of the strategy, and rarely work across functions.
In smaller companies, marketers do it all. We build the strategy, the team, the tech stack, the reporting, and the campaigns. We work directly with sales, CEOs, and boards because there’s no one else to do it.
What Smaller Logos Actually Mean
When you build your career outside the Fortune 500 spotlight, you develop a skillset that’s broader, deeper, and more resilient.
You learn how to:
Align marketing and sales without a middle layer of ops to translate.
Present to boards and CEOs, not just your direct boss.
Build strategy that works within resource constraints because you’ve never had a limitless budget.
Own results end-to-end, not just your personal piece of the pie.
The Resume Bias That Never Went Away
I’ve experienced this first-hand.
Years ago, I was the front-runner for a role at a growing startup. The CEO and I clicked. The fit was clear.
Then someone from Nike applied.
The CEO told me point-blank:
"I couldn’t pass up the chance to hire someone from Nike."
It didn’t matter that my experience was a better fit.
It didn’t matter that I had done the actual work they needed, not just overseen a team doing it.
It didn’t matter that I understood their customer better.
The logo won.
What Companies Lose When They Hire by Pedigree
The irony? When companies hire for logos instead of lived experience, they end up with marketers who don’t have the skills to operate outside the bubble of brand-name resources.
They hire people who have only operated within a Fortune 500 safety net, not those who know how to build something from the ground up.
They miss out on leaders who have had to sell their ideas to skeptical boards, align with underfunded sales teams, and deliver results with limited staff and budget.
That’s not just a loss for the candidate, it’s a massive loss for the company.
Hiring Bias Isn’t Just a Diversity Issue, It’s a Performance Issue
When you overlook real experience in favor of shiny logos, you weaken your team, your strategy, and your results.
It’s time to stop hiring show dogs and start hiring workhorses who actually know how to get the job done.
Have you lived this?
If you’ve been overlooked for a role because someone with a shinier logo showed up—or if you’ve had to retrain big brand hires on the reality of actually doing the work—I want to hear your story.