Application and Appeal for EP Rejected. Making A New Application, Please Give your Honest Review/Feedback

Stage 1
1

I got into tech in 2020 and I applied for EP (business applicant) as a senior project manager (PM) but was rejected even though I felt I had a strong application. (My OC2 was endorsed, so I’m leaving that out). However, now I realise that I spent too much time on storytelling, and I should have put in a lot more visuals and detail in the application. I think they also judged me against exceptional talent because, according to them, I had a similar role in a different field, but it’s more technical now, so I’m not in “an early stage” of my career. They obviously did not really read my CV because my roles were entirely different, and those were not product-led companies.

Therefore, I plan on reapplying, and these are my evidence.

LoR

  • Co-founder of a tech talent management company (Hired a team through his company for Company B)
  • Co-Founder of a clean tech company I worked for as a PM (Company C)
  • Manager, Talent Acquisition of my current company (Company D), a software engineering company (Is this strong enough?)

MC – (This was not endorsed; they said my work at Company A and B was self-authored and my media attention was just “career advise” which shows that they didn’t read them at all)

1. Media recognition for my work and my research gate articles with moderate numbers and 2 citations.
* media features centred around me and my work as a PM and how I mentor others + My book mention
2. PM for a Hackathon for Company A

  • 4 screenshots and links of media attention for the hackathon
  • Screenshot + Public Link of the Leaderboard showing 700+ participants
  • Screenshot of my email correspondence
  • Screenshot of a page of a slick deck for the hackathon identifying me as the PM (I also added a link to the full slide deck)
  • Reference letter on page 3 from a former executive at the company

3. Work for Company B as a PM for an App and Website product.

  • Screenshots of the app and webpage
  • Email correspondence addressed to me during analytics collation.
  • Screenshots of the website’s reach, bounce rate and monthly visit
  • A dashboard of a user of the application (this is exclusive data and can only be assessed by a staff)
  • Screenshots of Media attention for the app’s release
  • Screenshot of the product’s solution design document showing my name on it (I’m scared that I shared this as it breaches my NDA with the company even though I no longer work with them)
  • Screenshot of my contract signed by the SVP of the company.
  • Screenshot of email correspondence with my line manager introducing me as a PM to a different department in the company

4. Authored Book with proof of availability in 8 countries through screenshots of their respective E-commerce stores, media attention and proof of copies sold
5. Evidence of High Earning, Equity Option (Current Company) and History of high earning at Company C

OC3 – (In my initial application, they only acknowledged Company D but they mentioned that there is insufficient clarity relating to my specific contribution)

1. My work at Company C – A clean tech where I led a product build and optimised performance.

  • 2 screenshots of media attention for the company about what it does
  • 4 screenshots of media attention of funds raised by the company.
  • Screenshots of the mobile application
  • Email correspondence with my team and I about the product’s release.
  • Screenshots of metrics on the company’s website
  • Screenshot + Link to a peer reviewed research article using the company as a Case Study

2. My work as a PM at Company D (Current company) – Worked on 2 products.

  • Screenshot of the products I work on as a PM.
  • Screenshot of my correspondence with team members on Azure DevOps for Product 1
  • Screenshot of award won by Product 1
  • Income generated in Q3, 2023 by Product 1
  • Screenshot of MS Teams Kanban board that I lead for Product 2
  • Revenue generated for Product 2
  • Screenshot of customer ratings for product 2
  • Screenshot of the dashboard of my performance review by my manager, who also mentioned products 1 and 2 that I worked on.

3. Reference letter from The Director of Software Development at Company D (I can’t use him as a main LoR because he has zero media or online presence and a LinkedIn profile that’s barely active)

@igortsk @ask4jubad @alexnk @Francisca_Chiedu @Gbemiga_Adelola

3

Your application looks strong. Just make sure that you really detail how you contributed to each one of the pieces of evidence shared, especially for all the companies listed. My advice would be to caption the screenshots, explain what they mean for the application, and make sure the screenshots look presentable.

Concerning the HR manager, I don’t see why that would be an issue since he works for a product-led company. If he’s a senior member and he knows your work, then you are good to go.

4

I did some story telling in my application but I also included a lot of screenshots and statistics. I mentioned in a number of documents when I finished my Bachelors degree then started working in a non tech nation approved field and then did a masters degree and then started working as a software developer. I mentioned this in multiple documents.

But at the same time I had an entire document in my MC just a few words short of 3 pages which explained this again but in detail, what was my previous job, why I think it should not count, why I should be considered for exceptional promise even though I finished my Bachelors degree in 2017. I backed it up with screenshots and links to the official Tech Nation Visa Guide.

Also for salary make sure that you include screenshots and links to Payscale or the relevant website your country. That is all I did in mine. I compared my Salary to other cities like Manchester, London etc and said things like my salary is X% higher than average salary in Manchester for PHP Developers.

I used all 10 documents and 9 of them were full of text and screenshots and used all 3 pages on all of them. If you have space use it and don’t leave anything to interpretation or chance.

Like you said they did not read your CV and your initial job/work was in another field. I would recommend doing a document like I did.

5

Thank you both @Amara_O @promisingtalent . I already reapplied and I just received my endorsement email. I got endorsed for exceptional promise.

2 Likes
6

Congratulations. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours in the UK.

7

@Chichi Did your single evidence pages exceeded 3 pages ? I understand you added multiple screenshots and it is very hard to fit them all in.

1 Like
8

@reachusama None of my evidence exceeded 3 pages. I found a way to fit all of them in by putting some images side by side and captioning them.

9

Thank you @Chichi, I am also forcing things to fit in as much as possible. I think they love reading captions and seeing evidence!

10

Absolutely. @reachusama They don’t read too many text, they just need you to highlight your role and impact and then supplement with images and third party evidence which should be captioned.

1 Like
11

@chichi, Congrats on your endorsement, did you re-apply with the same documents, what changes did you make?

12

Thank you. @Johny I applied with the same documents. I only made some changes. My LoR rewrote their letters, and I reduced the text on my evidence docs, I also added more images and external links and I changed the layout. Finally, I got 2 third party evidence (reference letters) to validate my evidence.