2 questions - Can I include my academic work for Exceptional Promise or would it turn me into Exceptional Talent? and 2) Business or Technical?

Stage 1
1

Hi wonderful people, I would appreciate opinions on two things:

  1. if I include my academic work, can I still apply as global promise, or only talent because my Phd started in 2017?
  2. Would it make more sense for my to apply as a technically savvy business applicant or business savvy technical applicant?

I was a PhD student in the sciences from 2017 - 2020. During my studies, I was the statistician for my lab. I did a lot of analysis of animal tracks using R for stats and coding and tags. During this time I became a world expert in the field and also published some groundbreaking papers around the stats.

In 2021 I left academia and founded my own edtech company, and in 2022 I joined VC. I’m departing VC to go back into tech.

For question 1)
I would like to include my academic papers and recognitions if possible, because that is that area in which I have received the most recognition. I have been told by some that I could fold that under the academic category as it involved tech as well as coding. However, if I include my PhD, will I be saying that I have been in the digital technology sector for more than 5 years, therefore disqualifying me from global promise? Does academia qualify in your timeline (Maybe worth noting though - the paper published was 2020, and a talk was 2019)? I’m also a little confused as to how one includes academia in general, because nothing in academia is a digital technology led product as they aren’t making money off the work.

For question 2)

I have gotten differing opinions on whether to apply for business or tech tracks.

Argument for tech - My PhD would really fall under tech because I was the statistician for the lab and did animal movement models and bayesian stats etc. I was told by a friend to lean into this, include the GitHub, talk about the technical aspects of my own little edtech company, and then say I am coming into my new role as CTO/COO. CONS - I’m not sure who looks at the code, etc, but my skills are very niche here, and I was learning them in a vacuum so everything is quite messy and likely wouldn’t make sense to the average software engineer.

Argument for business - I could also apply under the business track and lean into my experience as a founder and mentoring I have done in the VC space and network I have built and say I am coming into my new role just as COO. CONS - does this disqualify me from using my academic work as evidence and also my GitHub as that is technical and not business? If I apply under business will they automatically look at me as a VC and disqualify me?

Thank you so much for any and all thoughts!

2

Which route puts you in the best position to meet 3 criteria and furnish 10 strong evidences towards them as per TN guidelines?

3

Hi Pajuja!

It’s complicated. If I can still include my technical academic research whilst going the business route and just say I am a technical founder, then business route. Do you think that is allowed? Would I still be able to include stats and coding related papers?

4

Would you have more proof to substantiate as a business role or the other? Basis that choose your choice of criteria and path - you can pick OC3 or OC1 and OC4 - that will cover both. And in your personal statement use a paragraph to explain the reasoning behind your selections.

5

Hi Pahuja,

Thanks again for your input. I guess the answer is business. Do you know if I am allowed to submit some technical evidence (eg the phd coding) even if I am doing the business route?

6

Please see OC4 here if your technical evidence demonstrates success against any of the listed examples

7

It does! I have published papers in peer reviewed journals, been a speaker for an Ecology Society, won grants, done work with WWF that changed polar legislation, and have a reference from my advisor. The only thing that gives me pause is it says academic work in the ‘field.’ There is no field of tech in academia. I think my work relates to tech because it was all ecology related data science from digital tag data, but I’m not sure if that counts.

8

I think you are over thinking bout application. At the moment first list the evidence you have to meet the criteria then we can suggest the top evidence that suggests you are an exceptional talent or promise.

What evidence demonstrate you are a leader in the sector?

Do you have conference speaking, awards, thought leadership, high salary…
For OC2, have you mentored in structured programmes
Do you have articles and publications relating to your work,

Do you have other talks done outside your work?

If you decide to do OC4 focus on evidence that are within the last five years.

9

Did some digging and I think my academic work would count because it falls under Computational Biology and Bioinformatics :slight_smile:

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