[wskinner]

Distance makes things appear shinier than they are. It's not just new-to-tech people who find these companies prestigious. It's anyone who is sufficiently far from the industry, and especially people who are in other status-oriented professions. For example, bankers and lawyers, who are themselves in high-status professions and at high-status firms within their profession, find G/FB/AAPL very prestigious.

It's a credential, and like all credentials, if you can precisely measure the thing the credential is certifying, the credential loses its value. Having worked at these companies or at least worked with people who have, many of us feel the credential is not useful. We can personally evaluate each other's skills. But from outside of Silicon Valley, the credential appears, and probably actually is, useful.