Please help review my application for - Data Analyst (Exceptional Promise)

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Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well. I am writing to thank all the posters and reviewers in this forum for their invaluable contributions. Your insights and advice are crucial to my application as a Data Analyst for Exceptional Promise. I graduated from university four years ago and have worked for three startups. Any further feedback is appreciated.

Recommendation Letters

3 recommendation letters from a digital-led startup, one from a CEO, COO, and VP of Data from three different startups.

Mandatory Criteria
High Salary Achievement: I am proud to share that my salary has grown by an impressive 2804.55% from when I started as an intern to my current position as a Senior Data Analyst. This significant growth highlights the progress I’ve made in my career.
International Experience: I’ve had the unique opportunity to work as an expatriate, where the company supported me in overcoming the challenges of obtaining a Class G2 work permit. During this period, I trained local talent, which was both challenging and rewarding, setting me apart in the field of data analysis.
Career Progression: Starting as an intern and advancing to a Senior Data Analyst role has been remarkable. My dedication and hard work have paid off, placing me in my city’s top 10 percentile of earners in my country of residence and it can also cut across the region I live in. In fact, benchmarking data shows that I earn 2.6 times more than the top 10 percentile.
Key Achievements: One of my significant accomplishments includes a letter of recommendation from a startup where I was part of the country expansion team. As the sole analyst, I led the development of business intelligence infrastructure crucial for the business development of a new country’s expansion. The company will gladly mention what I did in detail in three pages.

OC2: Advancement of the sector

Tableau Dashboards: I have several Tableau Public dashboards that users have viewed. These dashboards are real-life examples I have used in my startups, and I revamped them using public datasets to help new users quickly grasp analytical concepts.

Community Engagement: I actively contribute to a data analytics forum on WhatsApp with over 800 members. This forum includes some of the best minds in the country and those just starting out. I frequently share insights, helping foster a learning and growth community.

Mentorship: In a private capacity, I provide mentorship to individuals.
I can share a couple of emails along with the feedback I have given, showcasing my commitment to supporting others in their professional development.

OC3: Significant Contribution as an Employee

I developed a web application using R-Shiny, which the company currently uses internally. This application has significantly enhanced the efficiency of our supply chain operations, providing substantial benefits to the operational team. The company is prepared to provide a detailed letter of recommendation outlining the app’s advantages and positive impact on operations. The letter will include code snippets demonstrating the app’s functionality. Additionally, I designed multiple process flows that have significantly improved the quality of our operations. I also created several analytical dashboards that continue to be used today, driving critical operational metrics. The letter of recommendation spans three pages and includes screen captures that provide evidence of the metrics we have improved and the work I performed to ensure these improvements.

OC4: Academic Contributions through Research
I completed my academic program with distinction and made it to the Dean’s List 8 out of 11 times. I received a letter from my research supervisor mentioning that my work is world-class. Due to my impeccable research skills, the university recommended that I partner with Serianu as a research analyst to contribute to the Africa Cyber Security Report in 2019/2020, for which I received a certificate of participation. The report, titled “Local Perspective on Data Protection and Privacy Laws,” was widely read across sub-Saharan Africa.

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Hi @Ball highly recommend you read the TN guidelines here specifically what is needed for each criteria Tech Nation Visa Guide - Tech Nation

LORs

  • titles look fine, depends on the content

MC

  • looks like the only valid piece of evidences here are 1st and last. the salary info itself is insufficient for this criteria as per the TN guidelines and so is support letter. Hence collectively only a salary + support letter document is insufficient to clear MC
  • Proving international experience is not a valid evidence. Was the training of local talent a consistent structured program offered through a platform? What evidence would you have to prove this training/mentorship?
  • Career Progression: not a valid evidence for MC
  • Is the letter from the startup from a person or the company? If it only highlights your work as part of job then this would be weak. It has to be from someone you worked with who can talk about what you did, your significant contribution and quantifiable impact. Will you add self-documentation to this also? What external validation do you have towards this - news links, media mentions, any news coverage, company blog, etc?

OC2: Weak

  • How many users have viewed? What is the proof of them using this? Is there any engagement? user feedback, testimonials?
  • Whatsapp group contribution is not a valid evidence. Weak
  • Private mentorship is not considered as valid evidence per TN guidelines

OC3

  • Why is the letter including code snippets and snapshots? You need to self-document this and add a strong support letter from someone you worked with highlighting your significant contribution and impact in this project.
  • Only letter is insufficient evidence as per TN guidelines

OC4

  • Not valid evidence per TN Guidelines

You can only choose 2 OCs not 3

You need to thoroughly go through the TN guidelines and acceptable evidences to organise your application set. Currently, it is very weak overall.

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Thanks, @pahuja This was such a great review. Here is my second shot at it.

Mandatory Criteria 1: High Enumeration Using Benchmark

Mandatory Criteria 2:

The Director of Growth has provided a reference letter highlighting my substantial role in leading the creation of monitoring tools crucial to successfully implementing a pilot program, leading to its full-scale launch.

Third-party evidence includes a Slack announcement acknowledging the team’s achievements and highlighting my contributions to developing these monitoring tools.
As the sole analyst on the team, my dedication to independently developing these business intelligence tools was instrumental in ensuring the project’s success. I can also provide company-approved data to support this. (Can you suggest the type of company data they can present)

Optional Criteria 2:

Outside my day-to-day, I had the opportunity to contribute to the African Serianu Report, a comprehensive document that delves into the emerging field of data and cybersecurity across more than 10 African countries. This report offers an in-depth analysis of local trends, threats, and attacks, providing specific industry rankings and priority focus areas for organizations within the cybersecurity domain. My participation in this project has been formally recognized with a certificate of participation and a letter of endorsement. Additionally, company-approved data demonstrating user engagement with the report underscores its impact and relevance.

Evidence from Tableau Public displaying the statistical views of each report I have created.
Note: While Tableau does not show download counts, it provides data on unique user views.

Optional Criteria 3:

A letter of endorsement attesting to my significant contributions to developing an internal web app dashboard:
This dashboard improved a key metric from 80% to 85%, generating an additional $15,000 in monthly revenue.
The dashboard empowered decision-makers to make better operational decisions.
Screenshots of the dashboards and the associated code, with explanations of their functionality.
A salary appraisal showing a 100% increase.

Happy to listen to diverse opinions @Francisca_Chiedu @Afolabi @May @alexnk

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Your OC2 seems to be in grey area which may need further proof. You may need to add the point that “contribution to the advancement of the sector”. Does it help organizations only? Does it help other professional to learn and grow in their career in anyway?

OC3: Your 80%>85% and $15k are good, but may not be enough. Try to add more numbers and quantifiable KPIs as much as you can.

Salary appraisal can also be in the MC’s salary section, rather than your OC3 business impact.

I hope this helps @Ball

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Your have limited evidence to meet the criteria. Salary and letter from employer is not compelling evidence for the mandatory criteria. How have you been recognised as a leader, other examples you can use are in the guide, do have speaking at high profile events, awards, open source contributions?

The certificate of participation for OC2 is great but is the report online, does it have your name on it? Also is this contribution related to your day job as I see something about company data.

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Thanks, @alexnk. The Serianu Report is important for cybersecurity professionals because it helps them network and learn. It provides benchmarks and industry comparisons for trends in data protection and privacy laws. By participating in discussions and events about the report, professionals can learn new things and improve their strategies. I can support this with a participation certificate and a screenshot of where my name is mentioned. Additionally, I can provide a link to my Tableau Public profile, which has an average view of over 1000 in the last 30 days, to strengthen my case. I will strive to include up to three key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the information provided to enhance the overall quality for significant contribution.

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Thanks, @Francisca_Chiedu.I want to support my salary request with two letters of recommendation from senior executives that highlight how I significantly increased revenue. These letters will come from the CEO(Company 1) and COO(Company 2) of the previous companies where I worked. The online report shows my name, but I don’t work for Serianu. I volunteered as a research analyst as part of a large industry initiative. This initiative aims to promote industry insights, trends, and professional development. By examining the report, professionals can enhance their understanding of cybersecurity challenges specific to Africa and expand their knowledge base.

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If you can get a letter from the organization who certified you in addition mentioning your contribution, impact, and voluntary, it might help.

Also remember that you should provide the screenshots and evidence as much as you can in the files. You can provide the link to the tableu, but assume that assessor will not click them though.

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