Please help review my Talent Application

Core Application Documents

  • Personal Statement (1000 words)

  • CV (3 pages)

  • 3 Letters of Recommendation

    • LOR 1: CEO – E-commerce Platform (COMPANY A) – 2.5 yrs employment

    • LOR 2: CEO – Identity Platform (COMPANY B) – 3 yrs industry relationship

    • LOR 3: Co-founder – Community Platform (COMPANY C) – 5+ yrs collaboration

MC#1: Commercial Success/Growth – Head of Merchant Success (COMPANY A)

  • Revenue growth metrics, user growth KPIs
  • Screenshots/slide of the performance dashboard

MC#2: High remuneration

  • Increase Letter + history
  • Employment contract
  • Salary slips, employment contract,
  • Glassdoor/Payscale benchmarks

OC#2: Contribution Beyond Job

  • Served as the Judge for the Global Industry CS Award -2024
  • Reference Letter from Industry Expert - VP, SaaS Messaging Platform
  • Email invite from the Award body
  • Website/LinkedIn/WhatsApp group of the community co-founded - 5k active members - company C
  • Screencaps of online mentoring sessions
  • Mentees testimonial
  • TV Appearance - 100k + views
  • Speaking Online Engagement + stat for credibility (e.g. SimilarWeb) 100+ attendees
  • Screenshots, post links, or social proof from members
  • Industry article on high-traffic platform (30K+ monthly visits)
  • Roundtable speaker, TV appearance (YouTube link/screenshots)

OC#3: Impact

  • Reference Letter from Senior Product Manager - Company A
  • Screenshot of Customer Journey designed for Company A
  • Screenshot of customer support system/process setup +50 Resolved Tickets + 100k Articles
  • Evidence of Sales Pipeline built + leads generated

Hi @ian

MC:

  • what’s the first evidence? It looks like just a title.
  • internal awards are not valid per guidelines
  • media recognition for what? Does it mention your name?
  • what’s the third-party evidence here to validate your claim? How can this revenue be attributed to you?

You have mixed up OCs. OC1 is innovation, OC2 for contribution beyond job, OC3 for impact.

  • please include invite letter and snapshots of the judging event

  • and as the speaking event a large tech event with 100+ attendees?

  • is the article self promoted?

  • employment contracts & salary is not valid under OCs

  • mba is not a valid evidence

  • what’s the third-party evidence of revenue and customer growth metrics?

Looks like you don’t have an understanding of the guidelines correctly: please review the official latest guidelines here https://technation-globaltalentvisa-guide.notion.site/

Core Application Documents

  • Personal Statement (1000 words)

  • CV (3 pages)

  • 3 Letters of Recommendation

    • LOR 1: CEO – E-commerce Platform (COMPANY A) – 2.5 yrs employment

    • LOR 2: CEO – Identity Platform (COMPANY B) – 3 yrs industry relationship

    • LOR 3: Co-founder – Community Platform (COMPANY C) – 5+ yrs collaboration

MC#1: Commercial Success/Growth – Head of Merchant Success (COMPANY A)

  • Revenue growth metrics, user growth KPIs
  • Screenshots/slide of the performance dashboard

MC#2: High remuneration

  • Increase Letter + history
  • Employment contract
  • Salary slips, employment contract,
  • Glassdoor/Payscale benchmarks

OC#2: Contribution Beyond Job

  • Served as the Judge for the Global Industry CS Award -2024
  • Reference Letter from Industry Expert - VP, SaaS Messaging Platform
  • Email invite from the Award body
  • Website/LinkedIn/WhatsApp group of the community co-founded - 5k active members - company C
  • Screencaps of online mentoring sessions
  • Mentees testimonial
  • TV Appearance - 100k + views
  • Speaking Online Engagement + stat for credibility (e.g. SimilarWeb) 100+ attendees
  • Screenshots, post links, or social proof from members
  • Industry article on high-traffic platform (30K+ monthly visits)
  • Roundtable speaker, TV appearance (YouTube link/screenshots)

OC#3: Impact

  • Reference Letter from Senior Product Manager - Company A
  • Screenshot of Customer Journey designed for Company A
  • Screenshot of customer support system/process setup +50 Resolved Tickets + 100k Articles
  • Evidence of Sales Pipeline built + leads generated

Please go through the feedback on OC1 and OC2 in previous reply.

@pahuja Thanks or your feedback. I have updated. Please advise

Here’s my observation:

MC:

  • Performance dashboard screenshots are internal. Need external validation of the revenue/user growth metrics themselves.
  • Quantify and explicitly link your specific actions as Head of Merchant Success to the commercial growth metrics.
  • As noted, salary must be exceptionally high at a national/international level, not just above a benchmark, to be strong MC support.

OC2:

  • Judging: Beyond invite/snapshots, evidence the prominence of the award/organization and how your judging contributes to advancing the tech field.
  • Community (Company C): Show evidence of your leadership role and how the community specifically advances the tech sector.
  • Mentoring: Screencaps/testimonials need to show how your mentoring advances the tech field (e.g., mentees creating innovative tech), not just career progression.
  • TV/Speaking/Articles: Provide credible metrics for platform reach/audience (beyond attendee count/visits). Ensure the content demonstrates thought leadership or significant insight advancing the field. Need external proof of you as the author/speaker.

OC3:

  • Reference letters are supporting, not primary evidence of impact.
  • Screenshots of designs/setups (Customer Journey, Support System) and operational metrics (+50 tickets, +100k articles) are process/development outputs, not proof of significant commercial/technical impact. Need evidence of quantifiable business outcomes (e.g., conversion, churn, cost savings) directly from your specific work.
  • Sales Pipeline/Leads evidence needs to quantify the value/conversion and contribution to significant commercial success, clearly linked to your individual actions.
  • Ensure impact shown is significant for the company and clearly attributable only to you, not team effort.
2 Likes

Thank you @gk_shan

LOR 1: CEO, E-commerce Platform
Speaks to: MC2, OC3

  • Confirms salary and role as Head of Merchant Success
  • Validates 300% YoY revenue and customer growth

LOR 2: CTO, Identity Tech Platform
Speaks to: OC2

  • Covers speaking engagement, mentorship program, judging panel, and industry recognition

LOR 3: Chief Customer Officer, Fintech, Industry expert 20 years experience
Speaks to: MC1

  • Validates co-founder’s role in social enterprise and community leadership

Mandatory Criteria (2 documents)

MC1 – Co-founder, Social Enterprise (Community)

  • Reference letter from co-founder
  • CSAfrica dashboard + news clipping

MC2 – Nationally High Salary

  • 6-month payslips
  • Employment letter + industry salary benchmark

Optional Criteria (OC)

OC2 – Industry Engagement & Mentorship

  • Online speaking event (500+ attendees): invite + thank you email
  • Mentorship program (100+ participants): testimonials
  • 5 Mentee Testimonials + Google business review
  • Judge: Customer Success Global Awards 2024
  • Named Top 100 CS Thought Leader (2022)

OC3 – Commercial Contribution

  • Head of Merchant Success @ E-commerce
  • Drove 300% YoY growth in revenue and customer base (conversion and retention) dashboard proves

In general, I don’t get the details of what you mean in just the keywords you’ve mentioned. So I’m just going to address the bits I’m sure of.
MC:
Ref letter is counted as one doc. The dashboard and news clipping will have to be separate one.
6 month payslips are redundant. Industry benchmark is fine but it’s subjective as to what %ile you stand at. You need to strengthen your MC beyond whatever you’ve mentioned.

OC2:
Online events don’t count. The reputation and reach of the events, mentorship programs etc matter and what you contributed through those.

OC3:
3x growth is fine but baseline matters. Again, you need to show attribution to yourself in the results (and/or through the letter) and how it contributed to the tech ecosystem you were working in.

@gk_shan

MC: high salary is the weakest supporting document and is to be used only as a support. Just two MCs with one salary doc is not going to cut the mark.

OC2: online mentorships are not counted and it’s better to not show it as it’s specified in the criteria that it’s not valid. Ensure you show how the other mentorship is part of a structured program.

OC3: not sure what does the first evidence mean, it’s just a title and on its own doesn’t show any impact.