I was wondering if my background/history would indicate that I would be an eligible candidate for a Exceptional Promise Global Talent Visa.
Background:
-2.5 years as a Product Manager, where I served as product owner for a compliance SaaS platform for a risk advisory company. In addition to this role, I also used an existing SaaS (Salesforce) to automate and digitize our company’s entire workflow and analytic processes.
-Just completed (as of May 2021) a Masters of Information Management at one of the best schools in the world for technology (U.C. Berkeley). During this time, I contributed to, and was listed as a co-author of, a published research conference paper on cybersecurity and digital policy. I personally led my capstone project in interfacing with over 15 city officials to develop a product tailored to local governments.
-Joined a successful Series-G fintech startup in Silicon Valley in August as a back-end software developer, where I am working in a team to develop a finance platform using modern technologies.
I am still very new into my career as a Software Developer, but I have experience as a Product Manager and should be able to gather strong letters of recommendation from the President of my last company, the Dean of my graduate school program who I worked with, and a professor who I took classes with and who could probably best speak to my promise. I don’t have a lot of specific things I could point to in my current position, but I have a portfolio of my work at my previous company, as well as some school projects and a research paper I could point to.
Do you think I would be able to qualify as a candidate for Exceptional Promise?
We, unfortunately, cannot say whether or not you qualify for the Visa. No two circumstance is the same. You may also have undersold (or maybe even oversold) yourself. I will share some suggestions that may be helpful to you and others reading.
The items you have indicated seem to be on the right path but I would think you will need more documentary evidence.
You have not highlighted much as regards your contribution to the Tech ecosystem in your home country or ecosystem. You focused on items that I think will be considered as part of your “day-to-day role”. Even though it is necessary to provide the information (and include documentary evidence), they are not sufficient by themselves as per the Visa Guide.
“Software developer at a fintech” will not be sufficient by itself. Have you contributed to significant projects within this fintech that can be considered as “Innovation” or “Impact”? Do you have documentary evidence you can submit to prove this? Note that if you are seeking to prove Impact, you have to be able to show numbers (either number of people, or amount made or amount saved, etc)
As per your profile, I usually prefer people to pick one career track (that you can show yourself as globally attractive in) instead of spreading yourself (evidence) too thin. However, in your unique circumstance, as a product manager that has switched to software development recently, you may want to show your career journey and progression and your impact across the two.
What 3 criteria are you targetting? Criteria 1 is compulsory of course. I will suggest you highlight the evidence you have across the individual category. Use a spreadsheet. List out the evidence that tick the box of each criterion. This will also help you weigh if you already qualify.
I suggest you take a second look at the Tech Nation Visa Guide ( https://technation.io/visa-tech-nation-visa-guide/). The guide is well detailed and the items I mentioned above are mentioned in there.
As I mentioned, I don’t know if you already qualify but even if you don’t yet qualify, you can put in some more work over a period of time to build your profile up. I should offer a word of caution here if this is where you fall. Doing any activity(s) because you are trying to qualify will be obvious to the assessors who are also in the industry. Building your profile organically (but strategically) is better.
Of course, none of this is immigration or legal advice. It is just my opinion.