Firm Prestige Signaling Inefficacy
Observational StudyReview
Job applicants with foreign backgrounds are often advised to highlight experience at large, well-known multinational corporations operating in their home countries to signal high productivity and familiar corporate standards. However, audit field evidence reveals that listing experience at recognized multinational firms fails to mitigate foreign experience hiring penalties.
Picture this
Imagine a job seeker bringing a letter of recommendation from a global fast-food chain's overseas branch. Even though the company's brand is recognized worldwide, the local hiring manager still focuses on the fact that the actual job duties were performed in a foreign city, ignoring the global corporate logo at the top of the resume.
What the evidence says
Callback rates for resumes listing foreign experience with multinational companies remained depressed at 6.8% to 7.1%, showing no statistically significant advantage over resumes listing local foreign company names (4.0% to 9.9%), and failing to close the gap with domestic resumes (15.7%).
- Who was studied
- N = 12,910 mock resume submissions across job postings in Toronto and Montreal, manipulating firm type (large/prestigious multinationals vs. local foreign companies).
- How
- Resume correspondence field experiment randomly assigning work experience with well-recognized multinational firms established in both Canada and source countries (e.g., ABC Inc., Toronto vs. ABC Inc., Mumbai).
What to do
Immigrant job seekers should not rely on global brand recognition of foreign employers to overcome initial resume screening barriers in host countries.
From the source
"The addition of a Canadian master's degree or experience from a large national or international firm has no significant positive effect on the callback rate."
Why Do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labor Market? A Field Experiment with Thirteen Thousand Resumes