Hey everyone,
I am preparing to apply for tech nation endorsement under Exception Talent category in digital technology and would like feedback on the evidence set I have so far along with commentary on some in-progress items that I am doing currently to build some criterion as well.
Profile
- I have worked for Microsoft, Company A (leading social media giant), Company B (leading fintech giant in silicon valley) and now Company C (public SaaS company).
- Currently Lead Software Engineer at Company C
- 13+ years of experience overall
Mandatory Criteria
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Evidence 1: I led the architecture and launch of a major revenue generating product at Company A in 2022. This evidence would include several screenshots of news articles from late 2022 about the product launch showing its impact. Also, reference letters from senior leaders (now VPs/Sr. Director at other companies) acknowledging my work and leadership. There are a few quotes from a PM on one of the news articles (who is now a founder of an AI startup) and I am getting a reference letter from him as well to make my story stronger.
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Evidence 2: High salary evidence - Payslips from current employer, screenshot of levels.fyi putting me in top percentile for my area and seniority
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Evidence 3: Judged 2 hackathons in January 2026. Evidence would include invitation letter from hackathon teams, devpost page screenshot showing me as judge in both hackathons. These hackathons had participation of 1000+ people from across the world.
Optional Criteria 2
- Evidence 1: 5 Hackernoon.com thought leadership / AI expertise articles written between december 2025 - January 2026 which have total reads of 1.5k+. Screenshot of Hackernoon.com stats page showing viewership and total articles. Articles are about various technical topics as well as use of AI in developer workflow.
- Evidence 2: Top 4th (out of 44) contributor to open source project with 13k+ stars. I started doing this this month only. Evidence would include PR screenshots, discussion screenshots, contributor chart showing me as top contributor to the repo, github heat map, reference letter from maintainer of the repo. This project has gotten multiple shoutouts on youtube and other tech forums, so a screenshot of that.
- Evidence 3: 3 month structured teaching assistant at an NGO with 3 hours/week in-person teaching assistant to young adults. This is kind of like a boot camp. Evidence would include certificate from NGO, reference letter from CEO of NGO.
Optional Criteria 3
- Evidence 1: I was responsible for the global expansion of a revenue generating product at company B in 2023. This also led to a deal between amazon and stripe to go through. Evidence will include screenshot of articles showing the impact of the product on revenue of other companies like PostMates or Uber. Also, github commit screenshots showing my contribution to the project. Reference letters from Head of Engineering to prove my claim of the work.
- Evidence 2: I was responsible for overhaul of another revenue generating product at company B in 2024. Evidence would include Github commit screenshot, reference letter from Head of Engineering stating this claim as well, external news article screenshot showing revenue impact of this product in the market.
I understand my OC2 is a bit recent and weak right now. I am planning on writing more hackernoon and freecodecamp articles in the upcoming months to gain more readership. Also, I plan on contributing actively to the github project for the next 4-5 months as well.
Also, i am planning on applying for endorsement around end of 2026 so that OC2 does not seem recent and i have time for it to bake.
With that in mind, does my profile and evidence set seem reasonable to get the endorsement? If not, any feedback from the group would be highly appreciated!