I am a Senior Machine Learning Engineer with a PhD in the field, and I am currently planning to apply for the Tech Nation Endorsement under the Global Talent Exceptional Leader route. Based on your experience, I would greatly appreciate it if you could rate my profile for endorsement and provide any suggestions for improvement.
Reference Letters
PhD Supervisor: A reference letter from my PhD supervisor, who is a Senior Researcher and the Program Manager of a renowned research group in France.
Team Manager: A reference letter from my team manager at a large corporation. He is a senior in the field and holds a PhD.
CEO: A reference letter from the CEO of my current employer.
Mandatory Criteria (MC)
MC1: A letter from the CEO of my current company detailing the projects I have led during my employment.
MC2: A letter from the CTO of a startup (early-stage) where I serve as an ML Technical Advisor, highlighting my leadership in developing their ML stack.
Optional Criteria (OC)
Innovation: A US Patent in the autonomous driving field (2021).
Early-Stage Startup Contributions: Evidence of technical contributions to an early-stage startup in a niche domain. This includes:
A letter from the CTO of the startup.
Proof of remuneration (I worked as a freelancer for two months).
Current Role Contributions: Proof of technical contributions as an AI Solutions Engineer at my current employer. This includes a letter from the CTO highlighting my role as a technical lead delivering ML solutions to clients.
Advisor Contributions: Evidence of technical contributions to the early-stage startup I currently advise, including GitHub contributions and associated stats.
Teaching Activities: Proof of teaching activities at the university level, including:
Courses I taught.
Invoices as evidence of my involvement.
Earnings and Equity: Proof of earnings and stock options.
LoRs: team lead may not be senior enough
MC: You only have two letters - TN require evidence of achievements and emphasize that just letters aren’t enough
OC: Which optional ciretia are you planning to submit to? You need to choose two
For the LoR n.2 You are correct, I only mentioned his current position currently, but he has 15 years of industrial experience in the digital technology.
Noted for the MCs - thank you very much! Would github stats showing that I am the one of the major contributors in my current workplace be accepted ?
For optional criteria, I want to use the following optional criteria
Technical contribution at company X.
1.1 Technical contribution to startup A as Freelancer - Evidenced by reference letter + proof of high earning.
1.2 Technical contribution to startup B as ML Advisor. Evidenced by github contributions showing that the lead and ownership I am taking.
1.3 Technical contribution to my current employer (startup as well). Evidenced by a reference letter from the CTO of my current employer.
Innovation
2.1 Evidenced by US Patent in digital technology.
Hey @hsafra thanks - I updated my earlier response with more detailed information. However, limiting it to just two optional criteria would exclude teaching activities from being covered. Do you have any suggestions?
@Ghallabi_Farouk You are not “limiting”, that is the official application requirement, you can submit evidence towards only two optional criteria otherwise you will be breaching the application rule itself.
You can use the teaching activities in MC if it fits.
Thank you @pahuja and @hsafra for taking the time to review my messages. I truly appreciate your insights and guidance!
Any feedback if my profile could make a solid case for Exceptional Leader and If there are areas where you think I could strengthen my application or better highlight my contributions ?