Hi, everyone.
I’m looking to apply for a GTV.
You can find my CV and portfolio at my website [ https://www.sohandsouza.info/ ], but here’s a summary of what I think are application-relevant points:
• Currently in the UK on the High Potential Individual visa expiring 2025/AUG
• Career track in academia spanning about a decade until about 5 years ago, mainly in computational social science research ( e.g. ….info/projects/moral-machine | ….info/projects/crowdscanner )
• Ample portfolio of peer-reviewed research publication while in academia (h-index 14; including publications in Nature, PNAS, PLoS One, IEEE Intelligent Systems, and Transport), though most of it is pre-2020 ( ….info/publications )
• Career track in software engineering in industry spanning about 7 years, across three countries, with a plurality of it in business intelligence software ( e.g. ….info/projects/eagle-eye-bi ), in addition to making software for research purposes while in academia
• Emerging career track in countering influence operations and misinformation using open-source intelligence (OSINT) over the past couple of years; trained in this with Digital Forensics Research Lab (where I’m counted among the “Digital Sherlocks” cohort) and others
• Some impact in OSINT, such as investigating and exposing a $1.2M+ influence operation targeting many countries (including the UK) across several platforms ( ….info/projects/qatar-plot )
• Since 2024/DEC, affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development as a Visiting Researcher ( Dsouza, Sohan ), after having run a seminar and workshop for them in Berlin the month before
• Currently an independent consultant; working mostly with UK company Amitypath (recent client: Royal Academy of Engineering); also contracting work in OSINT investigations of foreign and domestic information environment threats with Valent
• Featured in TV/streaming/radio/podcast media interviews and panels, and in press articles, nationally and regionally around the world, dozens of times ( ….info/appearances )
Some questions for a digital tech strand application:
• How important is income history? I have been pivoting to and building momentum in new career tracks over these last 17 months I’ve been in the UK, and so have taken hits to incoming cash flow as a result.
• How important is continuity of work history? Because of the aforementioned pivoting, as well as moving countries, and other personal reasons, I have a few significant gaps in my recent work history.
• I didn’t see any mention in the relevant TechNation guide section, but just to confirm: am I correct in understanding that the recommendations need not come from people based in the UK, or have a time limit on how old the relationship period can be?
• Any thoughts on my chances, and on how my case can be improved?
• Are any expenses to be expected beyond the application/endorsement fee and the NI advances (all of which I understand to add up to ~£5900)?
• Given that my current visa expires in August, what would be the ideal time to apply? I was considering a timeline scheduled to punch it in by April (by when I will have accumulated a few more gigs, hopefully), but I might be able to expedite if needed.