Update @Francisca_Chiedu @Victrr @somdipdey
I appealed and my OC 2 and OC 3 are awarded but mandatory was still rejected. Unfortunately, I’m unable to send any appeal again according to HM.
Sorry about that. You can address the gap in your application and apply again.
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@Francisca_Chiedu I will apply next year (probably 6 months time upward). I would have had more contributions to the ones I have already had.
I want to ask some few questions regarding putting the documents.
For mandatory criteria, I led a product which is an educational technology platform which has now recorded over 5000 assessments taken and over 2000 registered students. It was featured in the punch newspaper during the interview about the platform which the interviewer also mentioned my name as a “Lead software engineer” and asked some questions and inspiration about the platform and so many other things. I didn’t include the clipping news in my rejected application because it came up a month before I submitted my application and I felt it may not count.
So the next plan (although there might be other evidence in future)
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I want to take a screenshot of the company dashboard showing the number of registered students and number of assessments taken…including github repository showing my push and commit history (I can’t provide link because it’s a private repo)
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news clipping from punch and link to it. Emails from the CTO who is also a senior engineer at Apple in US acknowledging my lead role.
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high salary + % share of the company
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Outside of your normal day-to-day job role, you led or were a significant contributor to a substantial open source project, as evidenced from compilation of code commit summaries, repo stars or similar metrics such as download statistics, where possible
Can I use what I used in OC 2 for this same thing or its not necessary?
PS: I used this as impact before because I felt it’s not qualified for MC but OC 3 but now I’m trying to reason it again and use it for MC.
Also, do you think Certificates such as Amazon Web Services, Mckinsey Foundation Program, MSc Certificate in Advanced Computer, and Software Engineer certificate for course completion on Freecodecamp are useful? if so what criteria are best suited for?
Please, what do you think?
Hi @alex_james Sorry to hear about the application outcome 
. You can apply again in 6 months as you have planned.
On the mandatory criteria, your plan seems good. I would also suggest that in the meantime if you could get some more press articles done on the project mentioning you as a software lead. But of course, you can get permission from the CTO/CEO of the company to be able to do so. As the saying goes in the entrepreneurial world, “Any PR is a good PR”.
That said, a good strategy used by entrepreneurs to get press articles written are as follows -> 1) Source the journalists who writes about technology related to your field/sector; 2) Create a press release that provides an interesting scoop about your product/company; 3) Reach out to the targeted journalists with your press release so that they can consider to write about the product/company. You could use this strategy to get some more press articles about the product and mentioning you.
Related the OC criteria, as the criteria are accepted as part of the review of your previous application, it means that the criteria are fine but next time when you apply again, try to highlight the evidences in such a way that OC criteria are not just met but becomes obvious to the case worker.
Personally, I would say millions of people are getting Certificates such as Amazon Web Services, Mckinsey Foundation Program, MSc Certificate in Advanced Computer, and Software Engineer certificate for course completion on Freecodecamp. So, these certificates don’t really show you as a leader. A leader is 1 in a million or billion, depending on what metric system you use (
). So, try to highlight the evidences in such a way that you come off as a leader in tech.
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Thank you @somdipdey for this insightful comment. I am definitely going to work toward it. Cheers!
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Happy new year to you @Francisca_Chiedu. Please, I have a question. If I use The product I led as an employee for MC. Can I use the similar product for impact (OC 3) by showing metrics, impact (reviews of users) and statistics of number of users.
What do you mean by using the product fro MC? How are you presenting the evidence for MC?
MC
- 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
As a Fullstack software engineer, I led a team of developers building Edtech platform. I am planning on adding newsclipping (Punch, Market Watch, Benzinga, Fox affiliates, Digital Journal, AZ Central , apnews, Nairaland ) with the number of visits to those news sites using https://www.similarweb.com/. Like 3 of the media mentioned my name as the lead developer, along with the CEO & CTO. I will also add an email where the CTO acknowledges my effort during our end-of-the-year executive board meeting in 2021. I also planned to add metrics, google analytics dashboard showing the number of visits to our platform, but since I work as a key engineer, I am thinking of using the same product built for the startup company as OC3 (which is impact) since it has a high number of significant impacts (Number of users = Over 4000, positive reviews on the website from the users) or that is not quite good
PS: I used it as OC3 in my last application, and it was later accepted after review, but it had less than 1000 users at that time, so I did not use it as mandatory, but the media recognition was not there as at that time until recently. But now, I think it’s getting stronger than the one I used as MC in my last application.
- Outside of your normal day-to-day job role, you led or were a significant contributor to a substantial open source project, as evidenced from a compilation of code commit summaries, repo stars or similar metrics such as download statistics, where possible.
I was part of contributor to a large open source project. It has 46.8k stars, 931 watching, Forks 9.9k forks on github. I have a screenshot of when my pull request was merged and an email notification showing that. I also have a GitHub link to the repo for verification + a tweet on twitter where people are discussing and appreciating the open source. The tweet has over 1000 like as of now.
- You have received nationally or internationally recognised prizes or awards for excellence specifically in the digital technology sector, as evidenced by the award itself, reference letter(s) from leading industry expert(s) describing your achievement, or as evidenced by news clippings or similar evidence.
I received a plaque for being recognised as a Software Director in September 2018 by the Nigeria Association of Computing Students - Lagos Chapter. Only one new clipping, but it is a blog (I don’t know if this is strong or if I should not add it at all)
- 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.
I have proof to show that I received a high salary from the company I worked for in the US, and also plan to add my salary for the product I led (the startup)
Are these documents enough?
OC2 and OC3:
Awarded in my previous application (I will just fine-tune it again) as I have enough open-source contributions to show now, which are easily verifiable.
Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it.
PS: Please note that I am still rearranging my documents as I am not planning to submit them now.
if the media mention is recent, it may not count.
The media mentioned it in June 2022, Sept 2022, Dec 2022. If I plan to apply next 6 months, you mean it won’t count?
Should be fine. Don’t leave it too long though.
Don’t leave it too long though.
Do you mean I should apply soon? Which month do you think would be better based on the month I mentioned? April should be fine, right?
What stops you from applying before April?
I was thinking the media is still recent (December). Nothing else because I also want to apply early as things change and they may update their requirement again.
To me this almost highlights how short sighted Tech Nation is.
The point of this visa is to find talented individuals. You are clearly very talented, and the UK could benefit so much from having you there. They seem to just reject people because they don’t fit perfectly into a box. The whole point of the visa is you are supposed to be unique so you can bring something different to the UK.
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What do you suggest the media mention timeline should be, 3 Months, 6 Months, 9Months 12 Months
@alex_james did you submit your application now?
I’m going to submit by the end of the month
Hi @alex_james Did you eventually submit?, If yes, how did it go?
Still waiting for decision