Please Rate My Profile For Exceptional talent endorsement

Hi Everyone,

Im excited to be here, and impressed by the amazing activities of this community. I have been collecting references and gathering evidences for my application for the GT Exceptional talent Endorsement and about to submit my application but will appreciate your feedback on this profile.

I have been working as a software engineer for about 7 years now in Fintech and entertainment sector, but mostly fintech, and I am currently the Head of Engineering of a startup working on web3 powered fintech solution in the US, I have been working there for about 2 years now. Before then I have worked as Lead engineer in 2 other product led companies, with mentorship experiences at 3 different social enterprises since 2019.

Recommendation Letters

  • CEO of the organiser of an event I was invited as a guest speaker in a masterclass session twice in 2021, knows my work and spoke about it in the letter. He is a recognised digital tech leader and has been endorsed by Technation for exceptional talent.
  • CEO of a Hotel booking company, and also the organiser of an initiative where I mentor since 2018, knows my work and spoke about it in the letter, He is recognised globally and has gotten several accolades for developing digital technology.
  • CEO of my current company. Talking about how he knew me and my work at my current company and beyond.

Personal Statement
Resume

Mandatory Evidence

  • Proof of Leading a Product Led company: My current company employment contract with salary information and stock options. Reference to recommendation letter from CEO, Screenshots of proof of product in market, partnership sealed by the product, traction of the product.

  • Proof of speaking at an Event: Screenshot of Flier showing my name and invitation to the event, screenshot of participants, which is about 250 live audience, but shared within a community of over 30,000 tech enthusiasts. Screenshot of the organiser appreciating my work after the event, Screenshot showing caliber of other speakers.

  • Proof of Leading the growth of an initiative as a Senior contributor: support letter from CEO of initiative indicating my key contribution to the growth of the initiative as a senior mentor in the enterprise, detailing the growth of the enterprise due to my work. Pictorial evidences showing me during mentoring sessions, screenshots of awards and sponsorships received by the initiative, after I joined. Screenshots of testimonials published by blogs evidencing the impact of the initiative to the tech community in my country. including numbers of trained people.

  • Proof of Leading the growth of another initiative as a Senior contributor: I referenced the letter from CEO of initiative, in my recommendation letter, indicating my key contribution to the growth of the initiative as a senior mentor in the initiative, detailing the growth of the enterprise due to my work. Github commits showing evidence of work and evidencing significant contribution, the program is an internship that runs ones in a year, and its virtual, so I had to show github commits to show evidence. screenshots of awards and sponsorships received by the initiative, after I joined. Screenshots of testimonials published by past interns of the enterprise acknowledging my support during the internship in 2019, also of blogs showing the impact of the initiative to the tech community in my country. including numbers of trained people.

OC 2

  • Proof of Mentorship at initiative A: Pictorial evidences showing me during mentoring sessions, screenshots of awards and sponsorships received by the initiative, after I joined. Screenshots of testimonials published by blogs evidencing the impact of the initiative to the tech community in my country. including numbers of trained people.

  • Proof of Mentorship at initiative B: Github commits showing evidence of work and evidencing significant contribution, the program is an internship that runs ones in a year, and its virtual, so I had to show GitHub commits to show evidence. screenshots of awards and sponsorships received by the initiative, after I joined. Screenshots of testimonials published by past interns of the enterprise acknowledging my support during the internship in 2019, also of blogs showing the impact of the initiative to the tech community in my country. including numbers of trained people.

  • Proof of Active contribution to collaborative project on Github: My github overview showing contributions since 2016, and I explained two of the several projects that is publicly available, with screenshots of my contribution and the impact of the projects.

OC 3

  • Significant contribution to my current company 2021: Reference letter from my current CTO evidencing my work and how it has helped the company launched, secured funding and also scale with figures, github commit summary evidencing significant contribution to core services, screenshot of line of codes, architectural snapshots.

*Significant contribution to another company 2019: Reference letter from the CTO of that company when I was there, he is no longer with the company, evidencing my work and how it has helped the company launched, secured partners and also scale with figures, GitHub commit summary evidencing significant contribution to core services, screenshot of line of codes, architectural snapshots.

  • Significant contribution to another company 2018: Reference letter from the current CEO of the company evidencing my work and how it has helped the company launched, secured partnership with 3 major banks and also scale with figures, GitHub commit summary evidencing significant contribution to core services, screenshot of line of codes, architectural snapshots. revenue from companies using the product available online.

What do you mean by initiative? How is this related to tech, what example in the tech nation guide relates to these evidence? The events you are talking about are they high profile digital tech events? Have you contributed to an open source project. As it stands, your evidence can be better.

Thank you @Francisca_Chiedu,

I was working with this criteria:

  • Outside of your normal day-to-day job role, you established, led or were a senior contributor to a large technology-led industry initiative, evidenced through reference letter(s) from global senior project executives.
  • The two initiatives are related to tech, established for contributing to growth of tech in my home country.

  • First one was setup by the tech community, to setup a bootcamp, totally free to join, aim is to identify talents and help them network. The initiative itself does not provide a job to successful candidates, but companies sort after successful candidates, and this initiative has gained national recognition over the years for its contribution to the tech scene for helping identify and connecting top talents. I was a senior contributor to this initiative.

  • Second one is a social enterprise: established to train the next generation of female leaders. I am a key member of this, and the enterprise have gotten support from IBM and the likes, I am able to show my contribution, and how it created an impact, as well as the impact of the enterprise.

  • I have not contributed to open source code, I appreciate your honest feedback here, my question is, in your experience, do you think one stands a chance with above evidence, and yes the event is high profile digital tech.

I think you need to explain the importance of the initiative in your home country and possibly compare it with similar programs in the UK in Case the assessor doesn’t know about it. Did you add pictures or videos? Was it just a reference letter? How has both initiatives contributed to the advancement of the sector? Have you contributed to open source projects?

Thank you @Francisca_Chiedu, this conversation is really helpful. I hadn’t thought of helping the assessors understand the relevance by comparing with an equivalent in the UK.

My evidences were gathered as below - An explanation of the initiatives, the founders and their background and how i was invited to be a part of it.

  • How the initiatives impact the tech scene in my country, testimonials screenshot of independent writers referencing the impact of the program
  • My contributions to the initiative with links, pictures of me training participants, GitHub contribution showing reviews at different times as the initiative runs a bootcamp yearly and I have been an accessor and mentor since 2018.
  • Screenshot to a publicly available, tech article written by an alumni of the bootcamp, written in 2019 by an alumni, just after the program, who is now a senior devops engineer, referencing my assistance then.
  • Reference letter from founder.

I noticed you asked again if I have contributed to open source projects? I have not done this, as this is not something I have been opportuned to do. Do you think this is a deal breaker to show impact of contribution outside work, even though I am able to show this by evidence from other activities as I have shown above. Please advise.

Also, I am 5 years, 6 months into my professional experience, I am wondering if per-adventure I can apply for promise, if my evidences are not strong enough for talent. but I am confused especially since the new update to the tech-nation guideline. I don’t know if they still award promise if an applicant applying for talent meets promise criteria.

Thank you @Francisca_Chiedu. I got endorsed for the promise route with the above evidences:

Endorsement email came through after 5 days of application.

1 Like

Congratulations. You put in the work, well done. All the best with stage 2.

congratulations @wumi1