Please help in evaluating my profile and documents checklist for exceptional talent(AI/ML Leader with 10+ Y.O.E)

I am an experienced Data Science Leader with over 10 years of expertise in AI/ML, NLP, and advanced analytics. I am applying under exceptional talent. Could you please help go through my list of documents and candidly drop any feedback or suggestions on how it can be improved or re-arranged?

3 LORs

  • 1 from the Board of director of Sequoia Capital whom I worked with in a Sequoia group company and CTO there
  • 1 from a former CEO of a Life Sciences company where I had worked and which got acquired by a UK based company
  • 1 from a Phd & Head of Data Science at a startup now and with whom I had worked with at a very large cybersecurity company.

Mandatory criteria

  1. You led the growth of a product-led digital technology company, product or team inside a digital technology company, as evidenced by reference letter(s) from leading industry expert(s) describing your work or as evidenced by news clippings, lines of code from public repos or similar evidence.
    Evidence : Letter from a Director of Product management from a company in the Identity space with whom I had worked with highlighting my influence on building Data Science teams and products from scratch.

  2. You command a high salary or other remuneration for your services, as evidenced by commercial or employment contracts with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings..
    Evidence : High salary at my present org where I work as Manager, Data Science. My salary is 2.5 times the average salary for the designation and my Y.O.E in India. Added Glassdoor references. The current salary is in the 99th percentile based on online data.

  3. You have held or hold a significant expert role participating on panels, or individually, assessing the work of others in the same field or a field of specialisation related to the digital technology sector
    Evidence : I worked as a panel member, mentor and coach in a large Educational platform in India where I guided Industry professionals on Data Science projects, content etc. Evidence mails of my sessions and a recommendation letter from the HOD of Analytics from there.

Optional criteria 1(OC1)

  1. Evidence of innovation/product development, proof of product in market and associated traction through revenue.

Evidence :
i)Evidence of mention in the news of the AI product which helped in the company getting acquired that I had worked on in the Life Sciences company and also mentioned by my former CEO who had given me a LOR which I have added previously.
ii)Evidence of my work at a research level for a new innovative concept in Anomaly Detection using AI and published as a ppt along with senior directors at the large cybersecurity company I mentioned before. Has to be added through link as it is really large(more than 20pages). Also it is more than 5 years back I guess. Suggestions needed.
iii) LOR from a Engineering Manager from whom I worked with recently.

  1. Evidence of innovation/product development
    Evidence : A very niche LLM based project that I led and delivered building a conversational AI- Agent with Documentation details, github code screenshots and commit history details.

  2. Evidence of employment contract with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings
    Evidence : Again, high salary at one of my previous organisation and twice the average salary at same Y.O.E. Added Glassdoor references. The current salary is in the 99th percentile based on online data.

Optional criteria 3(OC3)

  1. Documentation on product designs or architecture diagram clearly showing your contribution. Please ensure this evidence is no more than three A4 pages long and demonstrates your personal work, not that of the company or team of individuals
    Evidence : Project that I worked on in one of my previous companies which does NLP for automated Incident management and RCA analysis. Provided Documentation details screenshots, github code screenshots and commit history details.

  2. Documentation on product designs or architecture diagram clearly showing your contribution.
    Evidence : Again Project details that I worked on in advanced Entity extraction and Machine learning. Provided Documentation details screenshots, github code screenshots and commit history details.

  3. Employment contract with salary information including any bonus and equity options
    Evidence : High salary in 1 of my previous companies along with Glassdoor data, equity received, from their plus the large cybersecurity company. Esop details through Carta.

  4. Having founded a successful product-led digital technology company or other organisation and leading it.:
    An active startup that I have founded in Healthcare & Life Sciences domain, with website, datasheet, deck details and interest from Investors. Some investors have mentioned to connect if an entity is established in Europe as they are interested. Screenshots of that and other comments. The company is not registered directly but have a regd. name from one of our family business. Planning to use that regd. no, Please help if it is fine.

I want to understand that is it necessary to add some context as a paragraph or two at the start of each evidence or can it be just evidences without descriptions keeping in mind the 3 page limit? Can the description also be provided while adding the filename and giving a brief overview in the final checklist while doing document submission?

I am new here and really require your help in validating and improving. Kindly rate and give suggestions.
Your help will be really appreciated @Francisca_Chiedu, @pahuja, @alexnk @May @Maya @igortsk @Afolabi @Chaitanya_Bapat
@Anurag_Singh @howardhughes

Thank you so much.

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Your evidence collection is comprehensive and well-structured, with strong letters of recommendation from industry leaders and salary evidence showing compensation in the 99th percentile. The mix of technical achievements, leadership roles, and startup experience provides a solid foundation for your exceptional talent application.

For each piece of evidence, include a clear summary page explaining its relevance to the specific criteria. While there is a 3-page limit per evidence, this summary is crucial for helping reviewers understand the context and significance of your contributions. When presenting technical evidence like GitHub contributions or architecture diagrams, highlight your specific role and contributions rather than just showing general project documentation.

Regarding your startup evidence, focus on documenting your specific contributions and leadership role rather than relying on the family business registration. Include the investor interest communications, but ensure they’re presented in a way that clearly demonstrates your personal involvement and impact. The research work from 5+ years ago can be included but should be supplemented with more recent achievements.

Remember that you can’t use the same evidence twice across different criteria, but you can use similar types of evidence (like multiple salary proofs from different roles) as long as they’re distinct instances. Your reference letters should specifically speak to the criteria you’re applying for rather than being general recommendations.

Consider organizing your evidence into clear folders by mandatory and optional criteria, with file names that indicate which criteria each piece supports. This organization will help both you and the reviewers navigate your application more effectively, especially given the volume of evidence you’re presenting.

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@Akash_Joshi Thank you so much for your response and detailed evaluation. Your points are really valid and valuable, the summary page is a really important point. I will try to provide a concise summary for each evidence document while trying to make sure it fits within the 3-page limit.

Also, wanted to check how can I attach pitchdeck as a dropbox link as it is a long pdf.
Would love to hear additional feedback.
@Francisca_Chiedu
@Chaitanya_Bapat
@alexnk
@Akash_Joshi
@Maya
@pahuja
@Bubun
@goonjanmall
@somdipdey
@Yusuf_Adebanjo

Please read through the official guidelines. Links to cloud platforms aren’t allowed as it can be modified at any time.

Thanks @Akash_Joshi for your inputs. I am putting screenshots of the important parts of the document and also for additional context providing dropbox links incase someone wants to access the detailed document as some are long presentations. Is that fine?

HI @Akash_Joshi

LORs: Ensure they specifically highlight your contribution and impact and not just complimentary language. Same for all letters part of criteria evidences as well.

MC: Please also use pictures of your panels. for mentorship need to also showcase program structure, selection of mentees and impact, recognition of your mentorship.

OC1: Evidences of work > 5 years arent considered by TN. They also are not required to access external links hence add relavant screenshots as part of evidence docs and add links for more info.

OC3: all evidences need to focus on the impact of your work through quantified company metrics and not just your contribution.

Please do add context at the start of evidences - the assessors will not be able to understand your evidences otherwise. Do not leave room for misinterpretations.

Thanks @pahuja for your inputs.

kindly please review my final evidence combination:

Mandatory critera are: Driving Innovation in AI-Powered Identity Analytics at a Large Company supported by a letter of reference from Director of Product Management, Evidence of High Remuneration company F: Salary and Earnings placing at top 1%, Overview of Mentorship Contributions with session screenshots and Letter of reference from Head coach at Edtech companies

OC1 are Project 1 GraphRAG Based LLM Project at Company X with documentation, github code commit details and screenshots talking about innovation and first of kind in industry, Evidence of High Compensation and Equity Grants – Company Y & Z at top 1 %, NLP Analysis Framework project at at Company X with documentation, github code commit details and screenshots and innovation details,

OC3 are Building my startup with snapshots of investor interest mails, Evidence of Company M getting acquired because of a product I built and which also the CEO had mentioned in LOR with news article snapshot of the product mention contributing to the acquistion & Initial groundwork at a large cyber-security company which laid founding stone for today , Impact at company X startup - Role, Contributions and Salary Overview placing at top 1 %, Project details of NLP engine at company X with documentation and github details.

Please help me validate if my evidences are correctly alligned?

@Francisca_Chiedu
@Chaitanya_Bapat
@alexnk
@Akash_Joshi
@Maya
@Bubun
@goonjanmall
@somdipdey
@Yusuf_Adebanjo

@Arindam77 Your OC1 does not need to include: “Evidence of High Compensation and Equity Grants – Company Y & Z at top 1 %,”

@alexnk I see this under OC1 from the Tech Nation website

  • Evidence of employment contract with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings.

Isn’t it fine as the salary details mentioned here are for different companies than the one mentioned in MC or OC3?

Let me give you another detailed overview and please help me with your final thoughts, adding it to the thread below @alexnk

I just have 1 day left before submission, please help me if I am going wrong somewhere in my arrangement of evidences under MC, OC1 and OC3.

I have made some changes to the last details and have moved my startup details from OC3 to OC1 conveying innovation.

Let me give a brief overview again as per arrangements now.

MC Evidence 1: Details on how I Led AI-Powered Identity Analytics at a Large Company (Letter of reference from Director of Product)
MC Evidence 2: Currently earning top 1% salary in India for my role as Engineering Manager Data science and also based on Purchasing power parity in UK for similar roles at company A
MC Evidence 3: Details on Providing Mentorship and coaching hundreds of industry professionals on Data Science at a Large EdTech platform(Session Screenshots & LOR from EdTech Head Coach).

OC1 Evidence 1: Currently founded an AI Startup (Investor Interest Snapshots) and details on the innovation of the product
OC1 Evidence 2: Developed LLM & NLP Analysis Framework at Company X which is the first of it’s kind in that industry ecosystem (Docs, GitHub, Screenshots) and how it helped them sign a major deal(no reference on deal)
OC1 Evidence 3: Recognized with High Compensation & Equity at Companies Y & Z (Top 1%) with comparison based on roles and PPP
OC1 Evidence 4: Developed NLP Analysis Framework at Company X (Docs, GitHub, Screenshots) and how it is innovative and solves a long-standing pain point in the industry

OC3 Evidence 1: Impact demonstrated by Building a Product Leading to the startup’s acquisition by a UK based company, mentioned that the CEO has acknowledged it in as part of my 3 LOR’s, News mention of the acquisition and the product being highlighted.
Initial groundwork at a large cyber-security company which laid founding stone for today’s Product and working with the leadership team as a fresher.
OC3 Evidence 2: Impact at company X startup - Role, Contributions and Salary Overview placing at top 1 %
OC3 Evidence 3: Project details of NLP engine at company X with documentation and github details highighting impact.

Please help me align my evidences and let me know if I need to move any evidence form MC to OC1 or else in any form. I have to submit my application within 24 hours. Any help is highly requested.

@Francisca_Chiedu
@Chaitanya_Bapat
@alexnk
@Akash_Joshi
@Maya
@Bubun
@goonjanmall
@somdipdey
@Yusuf_Adebanjo
@Anurag_Singh

Salary evidence is considered a weak evidence. It is an additional evidence however doesn’t demonstrate on its own how it relates to you contributing to innovation which is the main purpose of OC1. Having only 1 OC1 evidence in addition to salary is not going to cut the mark for this criteria.

This can be usuful to prove that you work in the company with high salary of the leading position, but it is not solely to prove that salary is the Innovative, as for OC1’s objective.

I agree that the example is confusing. You have to focus on the each criterion’s objectives. @Arindam77

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I would not waste 1 space for “OC1 Evidence 3” as mentioned earlier, since you had it on MC-3 already.

Also be sure that your OC3 has some good numbers/KPIs which are not self-authored. You need some legit screenshots from what you have (emails, certificates, etc), or LOR to mention those numbers at some points.

I hope this helps @Arindam77

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Thanks @alexnk @pahuja for your inputs. In my LOR from CEO of a company, he has mentioned my impact on building a product and streamling it. Can I use a screenshot of that part from my LOR and attach at is more evidence under OC3?

There are 2 pointers in the Tech Nation website that is confusing. In OC3 they have mentioned “Submitting the same evidence for both criteria may not be sufficient if it does not meet these different requirements.” and under MC they have mentioned " * You cannot use the same piece of evidence for more than one criteria."

Can you please help me confirm if I can attach the screenshot from my LOR as additional evidence?

You can just put a reference saying as validated in LOR#X by ABC where he validates my contribution to impact on XYZ metrics. You don’t need to attach screenshot from LOR since it is in itself a separate document part of the application itself.

Thanks @pahuja for the suggestion, I would definitely add the line that you suggested. If I still add the screenshot from the LOR and then highlight the words clearly to make it really evident, would it be fine if I still do it or it is not the right thing to do?. Sorry wanted to be really clear.

I have decided to put his words in “quotes” rather than putting a screenshot. Hope it works :slight_smile:

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@pahuja @alexnk @Akash_Joshi Thank you all for your inputs. Today I submitted my Tech Nation Application. Just a quick query on the next steps.

I had received the below mail mail after paying 524.00 GBP for the Stage 1 for endorsement

Thank you for your application for Global Talent (Exceptional Talent).

Your application has been referred to Tech Nation. Please allow 8 weeks for their consideration.

Now I have finished my application and submitted it on Tech Nation website post which I received this mail.

‘’'This email confirms that your Global Talent Visa endorsement application has been successfully submitted to Tech Nation.

Tech Nation is only able to process your application if the Home Office have informed us that you have also completed your application for endorsement on the Gov.uk website. If you have not done this, please see here.‘’’

Do I need to do anything else now or just wait for the results?

Just wait for the outcome

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