Next week, I’m applying for the exceptional talent visa. As a Senior Data Analytics Lead in a big tech company, I’ve been working in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa for 1.5 years. I have 8.7 years of experience in total. Can you please give me feedback on my document list?
Mandatory Criteria:
Delivered a Data Analytics guest session at a business school with more than 100 attendees (photo and feedback included).
1.1. Recommendation letter to support point 1 from the Associate Dean. The recommender was a faculty member of Marketing Analytics students who also shared feedback via email and LinkedIn to endorse the session.
Contribution to Open Source Projects: Since May 2017, I have been an active contributor to the Data Visualization community, showcasing over 100 projects in my Tableau Public portfolio. These use cases have gained significant popularity, amassing over 39K views on Tableau Public (stats included).
2.1. Recommendation letter to support points 1 and 2 from the Vice President of Marketing. He is the primary stakeholder who has endorsed my work and public contribution.
Optional Criteria 2:
Covid Response Product: A digital product was developed to assist the national government. Product details and media coverage are included.
Significant Outside Contribution: Highlighted as an author and technical reviewer. Stats and reviews are included.
Significant Outside Contribution: Highlighted as a Business Intelligence author at Udemy. Stats and reviews are included.
Optional Criteria 3:
Led the development of a high-impact digital product: The analytics product enabled the company to maximize profits by using data as the sole basis for decision-making. Stats and reviews are included.
1.1. Recommendation letter to support point 1 from the Senior Director, who served as the business leader for the product.
1.2. High Salary, Including Bonus and Equity Options: Made significant contributions as an employee of a product-led digital technology company.
Recommendation Letters:
Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Operations: Business vertical head who has endorsed my work, internal collaboration, exceptional skills, and talent.
VP Growth Marketing: Past stakeholder who has endorsed my work and noted significant impact.
Director of Product Management: Past stakeholder who has endorsed me for product development, innovative thinking, technical expertise, and unwavering dedication.
I am aiming for the Exceptional Talent route, how strong is my application for it?
I’d focus on the LoRs, it seems that all of your recommenders are from people you met through your organization(s). While there’s nothing wrong with that - you can maybe present a stronger case if one or two of your recommenders were senior people from outside of your organization. e.g the project lead for the COVID app, customers, suppliers etc. especially if they have a strong public profile. I know it is much harder, but it is worth it!
For MC, the talk that you gave might go or might not, depending on what it really was and how you narrate it - was it a prestigious, well known, business school? Why specifically you were invited? Did you present something novel that advances the field?
TechNation say in their guidelines that they want to see media presence or presence in high profile conferences to show leadership - and while these are not set in stone - try to convince why this is equivalent to a high profile conference, for instance.
For OC3, you’ll have to associate your personal efforts with the impact, the guidelines say that only a reference letter isn’t sufficient. Try to add screenshots from internal tooling showing you own the dashboards, edit history etc.
Note: I’m not an expert and this is in no way an advice, just my interpretation of the guidelines.
I appreciate your feedback. Here are some updates based on your suggestions:
I’ve contacted the committee of the COVID application for the reference letter. Although it’s been some time, I believe it’s worth a try.
Regarding the guest session at the prestigious business school (ranked in the top 5 MBA institutes in India), I’ve included these details in the evidence.
For OC3, I’ve added details about
a. Product development experience and contributions,
b. Included a reference letter from the business owner, and
c. Provided documentation of a high salary to further enhance the profile.
Thank you once again for your input. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can improve upon.
Quick question: Does including letters to endorse under MC and OC reduce the likelihood of endorsement from TN?
I have two Letters of Recommendation under MC (completely aligned with the topic and not merely additional content), and OC includes one Letter of Recommendation from the product owner (again, providing endorsement from the product/business owner to highlight the product’s impact).
You should demonstrate your application from actual evidence on each criteria. Letters are usually used as a support them or proof the authenticity of your self-authored evidence.
My suggestions here is to reduce letters, and focus on real evidence which you can snapshots from your work or take from media publications.
I appreciate your prompt response. I wanted to clarify that every aspect of my application is intricately linked to the evidence provided. Rather than merely serving as a supporting document, each letter amplifies the strength of the evidence by incorporating real feedback from stakeholders, product users, and endorsers.
I hope this explanation clarifies things. Thank you once again for your attention to my application.