Exceptional Talent Appeal Rejectionì

Stage 1
1

I applied for the exceptional talent route and was initially rejected on the basis that I didn’t provide sufficient evidence for MC and OC3.

I appealed the rejection, and after two weeks, my application was still rejected, now only on the basis of MC. While the assessor acknowledged the quality of my speaking engagements and international award, they said that these where still not enough even though I submitted up to 5 speaking evidences and one international award. Here is the assessor’s feedback:

"The candidate has applied with optional criteria 2 and 3 (work outside occupation and impact). The candidate has not provided sufficient information to meet the MC criteria.

The candidate has not shown that they have been recognised as a leading talent in the digital technology sector in the last five years. The candidate has shared information on awards and blogs posted as well as letters of reference and remuneration information. The Data Lab award is respected and has been considered, but it alone is not sufficient. Mentions in a PhD thesis are not significant enough to be considered for the mandatory criteria; many of the candidate’s speaking opportunities are similar, which, whilst laudable, do not have the reach or required credentials. Their compensation is moderate but not exceptional for their experience level. Overall, the candidate has not shown extraordinary ability by national or international recognition or demonstrated a level of expertise that places them at the forefront of their respective field in the digital technology sector.

The candidate has demonstrated significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions to the field as an employee of a product-led digital technology company. The candidate’s examples of work are interesting, and they show the specific impact of this work on the business.

Should you wish Tech Nation to consider your case again, you must submit a further application with the relevant fee."

Now, I want your advice as to the meaning of the last paragraph. Are they talking about submitting a fresh application or can I still pursue the present application but have to pay the relevant fee? What to they mean by “a further application with relevant fee”?

Please, I need your help, advice, and suggestions as I am really sad about this outcome despite what I think are my best efforts.

@Francisca_Chiedu @Divya_Rani @pahuja

2

It means you need to submit a fresh application.

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3

Thank you Francisca for your response. Please I have two questions:

  1. Can I reuse the exact same documents I used for my last application, including LORs, MC, OC2, and OC3, of course with additional pieces of evidence, especially for MC?

  2. Can I apply for a different route, e.g. apply for EP instead of ET?

Thanks in advance!

@alexnk @pahuja

4

  1. Yes you can if they have been cleared in the past. However still see if you can make them better as we have seen cases where certain criteria were cleared in first go but in the second attempt same criteria with same evidence was rejected

  2. Yes but The route depends on number of years of experience you have and that number can only go up.

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Thanks a lot Priyanka for your response. What about my letters of recommendation, all of which I got this year. Can I reuse them as-is for my next application?

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6

Depends when did you got the letters and when you intend to reapply.

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7

I think the issue may be how your evidence was presented. For the mandatory criteria, are these high profile tech events that ar done annually with a good number of attended or one-off events?

Are you a technical or business applicant. If you share your evidence list then we can share ideas on how to rework it.

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Hi, @Francisca_Chiedu. I’m really sorry for my late reply to your message. Here is my evidence list:

Letters of Recommendation:
I received 3 letters of recommendation from 3 well-established individuals in the digital technology space. One, a director and chief social scientist at the SMR Foundation, developers of NodeXL software; another, an associate professor at Em-lyon Business School and founder of Nocode Functions tool; and the last, founder of one of the most popular educational platforms for teaching data science and programming.

MC Recognition and Awards:

  • Awarded a prize as one of 3 winners in an international data visualization contest organized by The Data Lab Scotland.
  • I was invited by The Data Lab Scotland to write an end-of-year reflection post on their website, where I wrote about my highs and lows as a data scientist during the year 2023

MC Speaking Evidence:

  • Neo4j YouTube livestream guest where I discussed and demonstrated one of my analytical projects. (500 live views)
  • Slides I presented about social media research for marketing at the Marketing Meets Technology workshop (150 + attendees)
  • Letter of invitation to speak at the Nodes 2023 conference where I spoke about Intelligent Applications (500+ attendees)

MC Recognition:

  • Mention in an academic publication (PhD thesis) published by the South Cross University for contributions towards coding and visualization.
  • Recognition by the Social Media Research Foundation for contributing 2 open source projects that vastly aids research at the foundation
  • Acknowledgement received from Data.World for participating in a pro bono data analysis project.

MC Significant Contributions:

  • An open source web application project I built that significantly aids non-technical scientometric researchers in the Gephi community to collect data from openalex.org in a format that can be readily loaded into Gephi for analysis and visualization. This project has received 9 stars on GitHub and the web app receives an average of 500 monthly visitors.
  • Shared screenshots of users appreciating the value of the web application.

OC2 Speaking Evidence:

  • Was a scheduled speaker at the International Social Media Research Summer School where I spoke about 2 open source projects I have built for extracting data from Spotify and OpenAlex.org (100+ attendees)(Bi-annual virtual event). Shared certificate of participation and schedule of events.
  • Was invited by the Data Science Society of Nigeria to do a technical deep-dive into text-to-image diffusion models; an event that was attended by over 100 attendees over Telegram video conferencing. Shared event poster and PowerPoint slides.

OC2 Mentoring:

  • Shared screenshot of the letter of appreciation I received from the founder of the Tech Connect 2021 mentorship event for my participation as a mentor.
  • Shared a screenshot of the certificate of participation I received as a mentor at the Analytics Accelerator Mentorship program in 2021.

OC2 Open Source Project Evidence:

  • Shared screenshots and a link of my Stack Overflow profile and contributions over the last 2 and a half years, including my reputaion ranking, badges, and reach.
  • Shared screenshots and links of my GitHub profile and contributions, including code commits
  • Shared screenshots and link to my profile and my contributions to Hugging Face, one of the largest platforms for open source AI/ML projects where I have contributed over 30 open source spaces.

OC3 Significant Contributions:

  • Letter from CEO acknowledging and listing my exceptional technical contributions to the product and business of the company.
  • Letter of employment and proof of salary.
  • Screenshots, links, and narrative of my significant contributions backed up by relevant metrics, including developing an in-house software that significantly boosted the workflow of the data science team, dashboards, web-based analytical reports, development of a local file storage server.
9

If you have more than five years ghen you have to apply for exceptional talent.

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Hi @Ifeanyi_Idiaye

Did your MC include snapshots of you speaking at all the speaker invites you have listed?

Looks like only the data lab award is considered.

Can you show data lab award, open source project, nodes 2023 conference (if this is a leading digital tech conference) along with another significant work project that you led?

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Yes, Francisca, I have more than 5 years of experience

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My MC did not include snapshots of me speaking; only slides, posters, and links. Perhaps I should have included a snapshot of me speaking on the YouTube livestream I was invited to?

Regarding The Data lab award, I did share links and screenshots of the announcement of the award, with clear mention of my name. I also shared a link to and the screenshot of the dashboard I submitted as my entry to the contest.

As for the open source projects, I included snapshots and links to github repositories and the web applications.

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Your application seems to be rejected only on MC so you need to do everything and more to make that part stronger. You will need new evidence pieces there as your existing set hasn’t been sufficient or strong enough.

Looks like if you can work on this aspect, you will be able to get endorsed considering the other Criterias and LORs were awarded.

You need to apply under Talent if you have 5+ years experience, you won’t be assessed under Promise by TN.

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Thank you very much Pahuja. I will endeavor to strengthen my MC evidences for the next application.

However, is there a wait time before I can submit another application for endorsement?

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Please, is there a wait time before I can submit another application for endorsement?

@Francisca_Chiedu

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I dont think there is, since you received the feedback on submitted application, then you are free to resubmit. Some applicants tend to take their time as new evidences are prepared. Best of Luck!

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Thanks Maya, I appreciate your advice.

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18

You apply next day, just ensure you address the feedback in your proforma

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