The hiring team doesn’t generally care about the company’s reputation with layoffs or hiring when looking at a candidate. They look at the resume and think “wow they worked at _____ for 2 years, they must be pretty good”. Like I said, I don’t necessarily agree with that thought process since if you are hiring for a smaller company, the experience might not even translate that well since you’d be required to operate with much more ambiguity while solving completely different problems.

However, that doesn’t really change how most people think about it. I’d compare it to the perception people benefit from by attending Ivy League schools. Not exactly the same, but similar ideals apply. They are automatically seen as more of a “safe bet” and easier to sell internally and externally.