I got endorsed!!! Apologies its taken me a while to write this post. Its been an activity filled end-of-year.
Thanks to all the alumni who tirelessly provide their time and feedback to all the posters on this forum. Love and light to you!
I read a lot of the posts on this forum, but sincerely, I also read that Tech Nation guide over a gazillion times to understand it to be able to make this application.
Route: Non-Technical, Business/Founder route. Applied for talent, got promise. Hope the below helps someone…
Submitted 31st October.
Edit: 2nd November
Edit: 16th November
Edit: 17th November
Approved: 22nd November
Edit: 23rd November… so you see, edits don’t really mean anything. LOL And yeah, sometimes they edit at out of office hours like 9:30pm; that was fun to watch to add to the anxiety. LOLz.
- CV: Showed my extensive career in digital marketing before transitioning.
- Statement: My focus was on the growth marketing trainings I give and leadership as its genuinely what I have a passion for. And the product I built.
- LOR 1: Founder CEO of a digital product startup in the UK.
- LOR 2: Chairman of an established digital product firm in my country.
- LOR 3: A Chief digital officer in a corporate firm in my country.
- MC1: I’m an exited founding lead on a dating app. Provided letter from the other founder.
- MC 2: My speaking engagement on a public forum on Tech startups plus the excerpts of my conversations published online.
- MC 3: An industry award (digital media) + reference letter.
- MC 4: A tech club I convene that holds a series of discussions on growth and funding. Gave evidence of the meetings + reference letter.
- OC 2.1: I’m a mentor on a structured start-up program. Gave evidence of the feedback from the cohorts + reference letter.
- OC 2.2: A training I gave on digital skills. Provided evidence from post-event on their social media + reference letter.
- OC 2.3: Another training I gave on digital skills through an NGO.
- OC 3.1: A new B2C digital application I built (own the company) for people in the diaspora plus evidence of funds available for traction.
- OC 3.2: Senior Lead in a B2B digital product we built for retailers. Showed snippets of the documents I created for our strategy, workflow, etc
- OC 3.3: Showed growth evidence on the Company mentioned in MC1 above.
Notes:
• I didn’t use any external consultants. I prayed and believed God (yes, that’s my angle, my faith in God over everything!)
• Good LORs are key. Yes they know your work but check that they know the depth of your talents.
• I had 3 other LORs as back-up, cos yes, I’m super organised and tenacious like that. LOL. I mean, recommenders are busy people, so have backups in case they eventually don’t come through. It took a month of chasing my ones. And I eventually didn’t use one initial person on my list.
Significant to note:
• Use your 3 pages each, judiciously.
• My first 2 pages were clearly numbered and indexed on the left-hand side explaining what each screenshot or link on the right side of the page meant and how relevant it was.
• Then each of my OCs came with a reference letter from the said Organisation, so I pasted this as a clear image on the 3rd page. So, leaving me my first 2 pages to structure and organise.
• In my opinion, the most successful applicants are people who are not just Tech experts, but those who can communicate clearly and present their work concisely.
• Stage 2 took approximately 2 weeks; their SLA is 3 weeks.
Hope I haven’t missed anything out. Yes you can get it. Yes you can do this. Yes it will all work out. Read read read! Organise organise organise!!! Structure structure structure your words, screenshots, links, references. Review review review that it makes sense to someone that is not in your Company and more importantly, not in your Country and so doesn’t know the significance of those platforms that you have mentioned to your market. So you have to explain explain explain.
Gods speed!
