TechNation Checklist
I applied for Tech Nation Endorsement as a software engineer under the Exceptional Promise Route on the 7th of September 2022 and Got endorsed on the 28th of September.
Edits (1st: 13th Sept, 2nd: 23rd Sept, 3rd: 26th Sept)
I have about (staggerly) 5 years of Experience In the Tech Field working as mostly full stack but my core competence is on the backend side.
As I’ve learnt a lot from this forum, I thought it in appreciation to share my evidences to encourage software engineers in my shoes who may be planning to apply.
1. PERSONAL STATEMENT (exactly 1000 words) - Talked about my experience, how I got into tech (coming from a non-tech background) 60%. 15% about why I’m choosing the UK, 15% about the skills and competencies that I’ll be bringing to the UK and 10% about my plans for the UK
2. CV - 3 Pages - Included mostly summaries of my achievements for each company that I worked for, my certifications etc
3. RECOMMENDATION LETTERS
I did not include their CV. They all had public profiles. So it was just introduction at first page and LinkedIn and other links on the last page after their signature.
1. Director of Engineering at a Global company (listed on the New York stock Exchange) that I used to work for (4 pages including author’s introduction + LinkedIn profile)
2. Engineering Manager at a global company in the UK (also about 4 pages including author’s introduction + LinkedIn profile), he was my former CTO
3. Professor of Cyber Security (knows me from when I was a kid computer enthusiast) (about 3.5 pages including author’s introduction + Link to LinkedIn profile, academia, google scholar). - This was a tough decision, but of course, a professor in a Technology related field is also considered a leader and can recommend you even if you’re not a researcher/academia as long as they know you and they know your work. I didn’t study any tech related course nor have any published research paper . I once asked the question here Can I use a recommendation letter from a computer science professor
4. MANDATORY CRITERIA
1. Another Recommendation Letter from My former Head of Technology in COMPANY A - about 2 pages + 1 page summary of what I did that he witnessed - The letter had his company letter head, signature and linkedin profile
2. Another Recommendation Letter from my Ex-product manager in COMPANY B who is now a co-founder at his startup that raised about $4m+ - about 2 pages + 1 page summary of what I did that he witnessed. The letter had letterhead, signature and linkedin profile too
3. Document showing my work contract and a history of my High Salary. I’ve earned a high salary in about 5 companies. I used payscale.com as reference and compared them to the highest salaries for my role in nigeria and my current country. I also converted them to pounds as instructed by the tech nation documentation but I did not compare the salaries to UK salaries as I do not currently live in the UK. (The document was also 3 pages)
4. Another Document showing my certifications and achievements. These documents were compiled into a single 3 page file showing a short description and a small screenshot.
1. My hackerrank certification
2. An app that I built that has 1k+ downloads
3. My stack overflow profile with 67k impressions
4. My Solutions Architect Certification by AWS
5. My Developer Certification by AWS
5. OPTIONAL CRITERIA 3 (CONTRIBUTION & IMPACT)
1. Document detailing my contributions to Company A and impact (including diagrams) 2 pages + a 1 page reference letter by a Principal Engineer at the same company that witnessed my work
2. Another 3 page Document detailing my contribution to Company B and impact (public link to company’s Q3 and Q4 report showing high percentage revenue increase in the department that I worked) . I also added a link to my GitHub contribution graph during my time at the company. No reference letter included
3. Another 3 page document detailing my contribution to Company C (my current company) , talking about my continuous contribution and also link to my GitHub contribution graph. No reference letter added.
4. Repeated Same work contract/high salary evidence I provided in MC 3 above
6. OPTIONAL CRITERIA 2 (CONTRIBUTIONS OUTSIDE OF WORK)
1. Same application that I developed that has over 1k downloads . This app was used by my department students and professionals in the field I studied as an undergraduate. I described the app, the purpose and showed screenshot of download metrics from my playstore dashboard. I also added a link to the app. All in 1 page. Then I added a 2 page reference letter from a senior lecturer from the department in the field describing how the app works and how it has been beneficial to his students
2. A 3 page document detailing my other contributions outside of work (all compiled into short-description and screenshots)
1. Screenshot + link to my GitHub page with over 25+ public repos written in php, node.js, typescript. I also included a screenshot of 2 of my repo that were included in the GitHub arctic code vault contributor program,
2. Screenshot + link to Stackoverflow profile again
3. Screenshot + link of another app that I developed (with fewer downloads)
4. Screenshot + link of the paid version of the app (1) with some downloads as well
It took me about 6 months to make the decision to apply after speaking to some alumni’s and visa consultants because I was really discouraged at first. And about 2 months to prepare all the evidence that I needed.
SOME HELPFUL TIPS
- Always explain your evidences like you’re talking to a 5 year old. Be as clear and precise as possible
- Follow the guidelines: I had some other evidences that I considered stronger in OC3 but couldn’t include them because they happened in a company I worked in over 5 years ago.
- Use references that are as senior as possible in their organisation
- Use references that have a publicly available profile: for my OC2 referee, I had a lecturer who was more senior than him whose students also use the app but I didn’t use her as a referee because she had little presence online. The other lecturer had many sources that linked to him so I had to compromise on seniority there.
- If an evidence or a reference seems off based on the guidelines stated by TN, even if its by 10%, do not include them.
- Tell a story. The assessors are humans too.
- Take some risks: Like applying when all have been provided; Your evidences will not be 100% perfect. If you feel there’s nothing left to add, don’t waste your time, submit your application. Worst case, you’ll get a rejection and learn from it. Good thing is that, TN rejections are usually detailed so you know what you did wrong. And if its a case of misjudgement, you can always appeal. A particular risk I took was using the prof as a recommender.
- Learn from others: It took me over 6 months to decide that TN may be for me. I was heavily discouraged at the first time reading their (intimidating) documentation. But I spent the 6 months speaking to people that know better/ been there and studying the evidences of TN alumni here before I got the conviction to make the bold move.
- Capitalise on your strengths: You can check the MC and OC 3 for instance. I have stronger employee work than Outside work contributions, so most of my evidences were concentrated in those 2.
If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them in the thread.
Special thanks to @Abdulkareem_Basit and @sojo as I reached out to them personally and they were helpful. And other members of this platform that I learnt from, worthy mentions @May @Maya @Yusuf_Adebanjo @Francisca_Chiedu @somdipdey. I really appreciate your contributions even though I was a silent reader much of the time, I hope to pay it back by contributing more on the platform as well.
Hopefully, someone gains a thing or 2 from this piece.
