Need help with review for an Exceptional Talent for Head of QA

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1

Hi all,

I’m applying for the GTV as an "Exceptional Talent” and I would be very grateful if you could review my case.
For context: I’m a Head of QA with 9 years of experience, working in the UK company with 150+ millions of users.

MC:

How do I demonstrate that I have been recognised as (or recognised as having the potential to be) a leading talent in the digital technology sector in the last 5 years?

Evidences:

  1. Speaking Engagements:

    • Speaker at the Russian Internet Forum (RIF) with over 5,000 participants.

      Evidences:

      • Article from a Russian business company about conference’s impact
      • Screenshot of my speech in a conference program
      • Screenshot of page with info about my speech

    • Guest speaker at two QA mock interview webinars, reaching a total of 2,200 viewers.

      Evidences:

      • Screenshot of videos from YouTube with my face
      • Letter of thanks from the mentoring platform who organised events

  2. High Salary:

    • Employment contract showing high salary.

      Evidences:

      • Contract
      • Screenshot from Glassdoor with a comparison of the average salary in Portugal (where I live) that it’s almost 2x more.

    • Equity options grant document with amount printed.

      Evidences:

      • Letter of equity grant as a recognition of my work from the company

    • 2 big crypto token allocations (with an amount about as yearly salary)

      Evidences:

      • Document of allocation as recognition of my work
      • Screenshot of the token price at the moment

OC2:

  1. Teaching Experience. Served as a teacher at a major online university.

    Evidences:

    • Letter of appreciation from the Deputy CEO
    • Article about online university and their impact
    • Screenshot of the program where I was a teacher)

  2. Course Development. Developed two lessons at another online university.

    Evidences:

    • Letter of appreciation from the Deputy CEO
    • Screenshot from the course page featuring me among the contributors
    • Article about the university

  3. Mentoring. Conducted 35 mentoring sessions on the mentoring platform Solvery.

    Evidences:

    • Letter of thanks from a mentee I mentored on the platform Solvery
    • Screenshot of my profile showing 35 mentor sessions
    • Article about how the platform aids in learning

  4. Blog Contributions:

    Evidences:

    • Posts from my personal blog on dev.to about QA.

OC3:

  1. Impact on Company Revenue:

    Evidences:

    • Graphs showing the correlation between company revenue before and after I joined and after I increased the QA team from 2 to 10 members.

  2. App Recognition.

    Evidences:

    • Screenshots of awards received by our mobile applications
    • Screenshots showing our apps ranking at the top of the App Store and Google Play in various countries
    • App Store and Google Play ratings indicating above-average app ratings)

  3. Letter from CTO.

    Evidences:

    • Letter of appreciation from the CTO of my current company highlighting my contribution to the company’s success and impact as a team manager.

LOR1: CEO of my current company, noting that our company collaborates with the UK government on health programs (demonstrating the company’s impact in the UK).

LOR2: QA Lead now at Apple, with whom I collaborated at my previous company.

LOR3: Project Delivery Manager and department head at a German company who was my manager, attesting to my dedication to product improvement and rapid career growth.

I would appreciate any feedback on strengthening my case, improving the evidence provided, or any other suggestions.

Thank you!

2

Ideally for the MC you should have at least one more evidence. High salary is fine but try not to over index on it as you’ve repeated remuneration in OC as well.

I’m not sure if YouTube videos count as a speaking event, unless you can somehow show live attendance. Think of it this way - how impactful was the event that people would come and attend it live vs streaming the talk online.

Also, check for attribution, especially for the commercial impact - show how the success is clearly attributed to you, and the fact that you were the driving force in expanding the team from 2 to 10.

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3

Thank you very much for your feedback!

  1. What do you think if I move teaching experience to MC from OC? Because it was online university and I was paid to teach (even though money wasn’t the goal, but it was great opportunity to teach).

  2. Those YouTube videos was from live sessions (both), not pre-recorded. I will try to highlight it somehow, thanks

  3. Thanks! I was thinking about showing, for example, how I initiated automation testing, how it shortened time for testing and that after that we hired few automation engineers. But still need to think how to show that hiring of all of 8 people was my initiative

4

It’s generally advised to keep an 80/20 split between your work and outside work experience. I followed this even in my CV and LORs. You seem to have highlighted work ex in the end. Try to bring more of your work ex on top.

Think of why they want to endorse you for this visa when it’s for your contribution to the digital tech economy. So there’s a commercial aspect to it and it’s best brought in a work context.

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