system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How important is your advisor's name?

I've been working with Professor V. for a few months now, and it's going really well.  We get along, I like the problems he's giving me, and he seems invested in my work.  He's sufficiently well known and well funded, and his students have in the past gotten modest post-docs.  

There is another professor in the department, Prof C., who works in pretty much the same area and is one of The Big Names.  He has many students, is out of town a lot, and has gotten students into very prestigious positions after graduation.  I've never spoken to him.  

Now Professor V is pressuring me to enter candidacy, he says my work is going very well and I should get started on a dissertation soon.  I'm worried that 10 years from now I will look back and say "I had the opportunity to work with Professor C, why didn't I take it?"  But my option now is to put the brakes on my work with Prof V, and spend this spring working with Prof C, perhaps only to decide we don't get along and end up back where I am now but one year older.  

So I ask, how important is it to work with a very prestigious name if you have the chance?  I want to continue in academia, will my career 20 years from now be affected by having worked with a Nobel laureate?  I know my friends and I talk a lot about "this speaker worked with Andrew Wiles, she must be a genius, we should go to her talk" but do professors feel the same way, or is that just because we are young and only know the big names?
gpt
Well. Working for someone famous is not insignificant. There is the direct benefit of name recognition, as you pointed out -- having a famous, respected name on your CV will make it stand out.

There are also fringe benefits. Famous people tend to get more funding and have a better network of people who are eager to do them favors than non-famous people.

But, as you point out, you already have a good working relationship with this other person. So is there a way to have the best of both worlds? Can you do your degree under Prof. V, and include Prof. C on your committee and as a co-author on a collaborative project or two?