How strong are my mandatory criteria (MC), optional criteria 2 (OC2)
MC
For MC1, I contributed to a large industry initiative through three different publications in the Africa Cybersecurity Report but from the same company (Uganda 2020, Kenya 2020, and Botswana 2022). I plan to present the Kenya 2020 and Botswana 2022 reports as contributions to a large industry initiative and use the Uganda 2020 report for OC2. Would this strategy be effective? Each publication is over 80 pages long, highly referenced in the region, and lists me as a contributor. I have the certificate of participation and letters of reference (Evidence of books and google scholarly items quoting the report)
I have a salary that is three times higher than my peers in the region,
I have a letter of reference from an industry leader highlighting my role in leading the growth of a product-led company accompanied by internal datasets and metrics.
OC2
For OC2, is my blog, where I post data-related articles and have garnered over 10,000 views, acceptable evidence?
I have a public profile on Tableau with over 7,000 views and more than 14 open-source projects available for anyone on the internet to download.
Are these two pieces of evidence sufficient to meet the optional criteria?
One additional question: Can I submit a third piece of evidence based on the response to MC1.1 without the assessor considering it as repeated evidence?
OC3 is good; I won’t touch it since I passed it in the last round. OC2 was passed, too, but I need to tweak it and add the publication to MC, which makes it tricky. Let me know your thoughts.
Wondering what was the outcome previously? can you share the feedback! Also, if OC3 passed last time, doesn’t guarantee it will pass this time. I’ve seen cases in this forum complaining about this point. Maybe its worth sharing it too!!
Feedback on previous submission and the full list of evidences will help members in the forum to provide better insights.
Hi @Ball glad you are considering a new application!
Can you highlight what all did you provide in OC2 in last application since it was cleared?
In MC, can you provide one more strong evidence? 2/3 (salary and letter) are not really strong evidences for this criteria unfortunately. And your first evidence is similar to OC2 already. Is there any fresh additional MC evidence you can provide?
Salary to show I earn more than 3X my peers in the region
Salary to show I earn more than three times my peers.
Position growth from an intern to a senior analyst in four years.
Expatriate opportunities are held in two to three countries over four years.
Salary earnings over the years and how they have grown
Letter of reference from Industry leader company A with internal metrics (CEO who has raised 20 million dollars and it is a Y Combinator-backed startup)
Improved the speed of loan disbursement, impacting 3,000 businesses
Developed monitoring and evaluation solutions from the ground up for new country expansion project
Letter of reference from industry leader company B with internal metrics self-documented (COO of a product-led company with more than 1 million subscribers)
Developed a web supply analytics dashboard that uplifted a business metric, improved earnings by 84,000 dollars, and added around 1,400 additional trips yearly
Worked on country-wide base-fare pricing that improved driver earnings and uplifted fulfillment rate
OC2:
4. Tableau Public, with more than 5,000 views and 14+ open-source visuals
5. African Cybersecurity report contributor. I used 2 out of my three publications.
OC3:
6. Letter of reference from the global head of operations (Company 1)
* 100% salary appraisal.
* The process flow diagram shows that I developed various customer
lifecycle stages.
* Examples of ETL flows I developed for automation.
* Examples of my dashboard in the company repository.
Letter of reference from the Marketing Manager (Company 2).
Five significant metrics I improved while supporting marketing, as written
by the Marketing Manager.
A few examples of my code in the company repository.
A few examples of the monitoring solutions and how they support the team.
Self-documentation of my work at Company 3, including the impact and a detailed case study with highly complimentary comments.
Five examples of the work I announced on Slack and the interactions from stakeholders (typically where company announcements are shared, along with dashboard instructions).
vs
Current Application
Contributor to the African Cybersecurity report. I can use two of my three publications here (this was not initially included in the MC but in OC2).
Salary to show I earn more than 3X my peers
Salary to show I earn more than three times my peers.
Position growth from an intern to a senior analyst in four years.
Expatriate opportunities are held in two to three countries over four years.
Salary earnings over the years and how they have grown
Letter of reference from Industry leader company A with internal metrics (CEO who has raised 20 million dollars and it is a Y Combinator-backed startup)
Improved the speed of loan disbursement, impacting 3,000 businesses
Developed monitoring and evaluation solutions from the ground up for new
country expansion projects.
OC2
4. Tableau Public, with more than 5,000 views and 14+ open-source visuals
5. African Cybersecurity report contributor. Probably use the third publication?
6.Blog with over > 7,000-lifetime views on all posts. (Not used previously)
OC3
7. Letter of reference from the global head of operations (Company 1)
* 100% salary appraisal.
* The process flow diagram shows that I developed various customer
lifecycle stages.
* Examples of ETL flows I developed for automation.
* Examples of my dashboard in the company repository.
Letter of reference from the Marketing Manager (Company 2).
Five significant metrics I improved while supporting marketing, as written
by the Marketing Manager.
A few examples of my code in the company repository.
A few examples of the monitoring solutions and how they support the team.
Self-documentation of my work at Company 3, including the impact and a detailed case study with highly complimentary comments.
Five examples of the work I announced on Slack and the interactions from stakeholders (typically where company announcements are shared, along with dashboard instructions).
Assessor feedback on rejection: The applicant has submitted the mandatory three letters of reference plus several additional ones. All of them are highly complimentary about the applicant. However, Tech Nation guidelines state that letters of reference, on their own, are not sufficient to meet the criteria. More objective evidence is required. The only additional evidence provided has been his total compensation. Although it’s good, it’s not sufficient to demonstrate leadership or recognition. Overall, the applicant lacks significant or sustained recognition in the digital technology sector despite still being early in his career. He has not been featured in major media outlets or publications related to digital technology, nor has he served as a keynote speaker at any prominent tech conferences or events in the past five years. Additionally, he has not received endorsements from leading industry experts outside of his managers and work colleagues, nor has he won any major awards or prizes in this period. The applicant meets the requirements for OC2 and OC3.
I suggest you find another evidence to add for mandatory. 4 evidences instead of 3. as according to the feedback, this where your weakest evidences are. Please note salary evidence isn’t that strong too.
Since MC is usually the most critical criteria, you should maximise the no. of evidences in MC as mentioned by Maya. Most of the successful applications have 4-3-3 as the no. of evidences in MC-OC-OC.
In MC, besides letter of reference for product company, you should quantify outcomes of your efforts at this company (revenue growth, user adoption, cost savings, efficiency, performance etc.). A ref letter + internal data may still be insufficient, so try to find any media coverage of the products you worked on, any reports which mention the positive impact of the products you led, any press release/news reports of the stuff you contributed to at this company.
I would still try to diversify the MC as currently the variety seems a bit less. Try to add more stuff related to awards, conferences, jury membership, being a judge for tech initiatives, op-eds you may have written… overall, try to make it as watertight as possible + make it impossible to reject by sheer variety + strength of evidences.
After going back to the drawing board, here are things I found:
I have two published and two featured articles between June 2023 and February 2024. How best do you think I can allocate the pieces of evidence around MC and OC2? Two for each, as media publications/op-eds are always tricky!
Evidence 1: An op-ed titled “Data Democratization and Literacy: Empowering the Modern Workforce,” published on a platform with 196,000+ monthly visitors, known for offering expert insights and peer perspectives on business strategy. (Has my name as the contributing writer)
Evidence 2: An op-ed titled “Redefining Workplace Innovation with Ethical AI and Data Privacy,” featured in a major business publication with over 700,000 monthly visitors. Although it is a traditional media platform, this article represents my viewpoint and has my name as a writer.
Additionally, I have two featured articles:
A traditional media feature that explores my journey in data through a Q&A format.
An article profiling leading innovators in data transformation, highlighting pioneers who drive meaningful change, and I was mentioned
Thank you, this information is helpful! Is a byline that includes my full name and, in some cases, my picture sufficient evidence of authorship, or do I need to contact the publications for a letter of reference? For example: Person A (My Full Name) is a seasoned data analyst who inspires impactful solutions and elevates industry standards and strategies through powerful, data-driven insights.@pahuja@cosmic.wilderness@Maya