I am Frank, a robotics software engineer at a robotics company in the UK. I hold a master’s degree in robotics and worked at a robotics/AI startup in Tokyo before moving to my current role in the UK. I’m preparing my EXCEPTIONAL PROMISE stage 1 application and would really love to gain some critical feedback from anyone that’s been through a similar process. I am unsure about how to allocate my 10 pieces of evidence into separate categories optimally. Here’s my current plan:
Mandatory Criterion:
Proof of employment in the UK at a top robotics company + Proof of salary
Evidence of giving a talk on mathematical optimisation to industry AI enthusiasts in Tokyo, Japan. This evidence is in the form of a recommendation letter from one of the participants, a senior engineer from the autonomous driving division of a multinational automotive company.
Optional Criterion 1: At least 2 examples of innovation as a founder of a product-led digital technology company or as an employee working on a new digital field or concept.
3. Public news coverages of the projects delivered by my company in the UK. These are groundbreaking projects delivered to government agencies and multinational corporations.
4. A Youtube video showcasing my previous company’s work in a live demo at the world’s largest robotics exhibition, iRex 2019.
5. My payslip history to prove employment in the UK - at a top robotics company.
Optional Criterion 2: Proof of recognition for work beyond the applicant’s occupation that contributes to the advancement of the field.
6. Winning top prizes at an urban autonomous driving competition amongst universities worldwide (Featured on the university news page)
7. Participating in one of the first robot racing competitions amongst university researchers (I’m featured on the competition website)
8. Various youtube videos and medium posts I created explaining computer vision and robotics concepts with hundreds of views.
9. Sporadic Github contributions to opensource robotics and computer vision frameworks that gained me the Github Arctic Code Vault contributor status.
10. Winning an international internet-of-things weather data visualisation competition, engaging 120,000 people. For this win, I gained public speaking engagements at venues in the US and Switzerland. I put this last, however, because this project was in 2015.
I really appreciate your time reading this, and I’d love to hear your feedback if you find that a particular piece of evidence is in the wrong place, needs strengthening or if you’d suggest I apply for a different optional criterion.
Hi Frank, I can see you have very strong track record.
Your evidence for optional criteria 2 looks super strong (you put 5), might be worth adding some to other criteria when relavant.
Key criteria might worth more evidence (as it is the key one). FYI, I used 4 documents for key criteria, and 3 documents for each qualifying criteria.
One suggestion is for you to highlight your role in item 3&4, and mention it together with the evidence. (I guess you have done so, but just in case you only focused on the company)
Hi @fulkast your profile is quite similar to mine and I got endorsed. Am not giving you professional advise but just based of my successful application. This is how I would arrange your evidence
Mandatory 1) How do I demonstrate that I have been recognised as (or recognised as having the potential to be) a leading talent in the digital technology sector?
Point : You have received nationally or internationally recognised prizes or awards for excellence specifically in the digital technology sector, as evidenced by the award itself, reference letter(s) from leading industry expert(s) describing your achievement, or as evidenced by news clippings or similar evidence.
Winning top prizes at an urban autonomous driving competition amongst universities worldwide (Featured on the university news page)
Participating in one of the first robot racing competitions amongst university researchers (I’m featured on the competition website)
Winning an international internet-of-things weather data visualisation competition, engaging 120,000 people. For this win, I gained public speaking engagements at venues in the US and Switzerland. I put this last, however, because this project was in 2015.
2) How do I demonstrate that I have been recognised for my work outside of my immediate occupation that contributed to the advancement of the sector?
Point: Evidence of contributions to an Open Source project, Your GitHub profile demonstrating active participation in a collaborative project
Various youtube videos and medium posts I created explaining computer vision and robotics concepts with hundreds of views.
Sporadic Github contributions to opensource robotics and computer vision frameworks that gained me the Github Arctic Code Vault contributor status.
3) How do I demonstrate that I have made a significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions to the field as a founder, senior executive or employee of a product-led digital technology company?
Point: * Having worked as a key engineer in the core product of a start-up, showing evidence as to how you have contributed to its success.
Proof of employment in the UK at a top robotics company + Proof of salary
Evidence of giving a talk on mathematical optimisation to industry AI enthusiasts in Tokyo, Japan. This evidence is in the form of a recommendation letter from one of the participants, a senior engineer from the autonomous driving division of a multinational automotive company.
3. Public news coverages of the projects delivered by my company in the UK. These are groundbreaking projects delivered to government agencies and multinational corporations.
4. A Youtube video showcasing my previous company’s work in a live demo at the world’s largest robotics exhibition, iRex 2019.
5. My payslip history to prove employment in the UK - at a top robotics company.
I have added the criteria and the related point found on the technation guide https://technation.io/visa-tech-nation-visa-guide/.
Feel free to check my first post for my detailed application. All the best!!!
@steven4320555 Thank you for sharing your evidence split. Indeed, I should have more evidence backing my mandatory criterion - I will do this. And thanks for suggesting I should highlight my role in evidence 3&4, I didn’t focus on that before.
Hi @pete_rock congrats! And thank you for your guidance. I was originally a bit doubtful about using optional criterion 1. With your feedback, it’s clear to me that I should be using optional criterion 3 ( Having worked as a key engineer in the core product of a start-up, showing evidence as to how you have contributed to its success.).
Thank you for taking your time to help me out, my application would have been lost of structure without your help.
I can confirm now that I have been endorsed by TechNation and have received my new Global Talent BRP card
To summarise, here’s my final evidence placement in a 3-4-3 formation (3 Mandatory - 4 first Optional - 3 second Optional).
Mandatory 1/3: Winning top prizes at an international (university level) self-driving car competition.
Mandatory 2/3: Completing (not winning a prize) an international robotics competition with a handicap compared to other competitors.
Mandatory 3/3: Finalist at the biggest hackathon in Europe - HackZurich
Optional 1 - Proof of recognition for work beyond the applicant’s occupation that contributes to the advancement of the field.
1/4: Recommendation letter from an engineer participant at a Meetup talk I gave on mathematical optimisation.
2/4: Github contributor status. Explaining the significance behind the robotics open source projects that I contributed to.
3/4: My Youtube and Medium outreach, teaching computer vision and AI on these platforms.
4/4: Invited guest panelist talks on big data and data literacy in San Francisco and other cities around the world. (put this one last because it was a while back).
Optional 2 - Have made significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions to the field as a founder or employee of a product-led digital technology company.
1/3: Explaining the significance of what I do at my current job at a robotics company in the UK.
2/3: Explaining the significance of what I did at my last job at a different robotics company.
3/3: My payslip and a link to glassdoor showing that my salary is on the higher end of the distribution for my role and location.
That’s great Frank. Congrats I am gathering evidence for my application and have the following question, would you be able to help me?
In your optional 2 - significant contribution, did you provide any additional evidence for your current and previous work? Like additional reference letter or did you ask your main recommenders to mention these things in the recommendation letter?
No, I did not have additional evidence and no additional reference letters for this part. One of my main referees is the CTO of my former employer. He did mention my contributions in his reference letter which of course, I provided more context in my explanations. More precisely, I took screenshots of the company’s webpage and youtube videos demonstrating the digital product that was referred to in the reference letter.
I am gathering evidence for my application and have the following question, would you be able to help me?