Rejection- please help would appreciate it deeply

1

Hello All,
My application was as below.
LOR:
LOR from founder of the worlds biggest QA community ( letterhead wet ink)
LOR from ex director of product (left company 3 months back) (docusign)
LOR from CTO of my current company (letter head wet ink)

MC1:
You led the growth of a product-led digital technology company

Doc 1

*Growth of the company with my AI initiatives which I led and did POC of, revenue generated , user flows and designs with my name shown and chart for growth.
CTO’s reference letter also talks about it

Doc 2

Public speaking
photos of me speaking at
500+ audience event

and 4k+ virtual conference

LinkedIn chat screenshots of people contacting me after conference for advice and appreciation.

Doc 3
current salary proof, proof of two salary raises in 6 month
proof of being at top of my salary band and in top 15% of the country

Doc 4:
Article published proof, payment from the company for the article
proof of different new letters citing my article and proof of audience reach of 1200

OC2:( work beyond occupation)

Doc 5
Proof of structured mentorship in an NGO called code your future, slack chat screenshots of me helping folks and a LOR from the head of the NGO

Proof of contribution of GitHub in 130+ repos over last year

Doc 6
Proof of starting a meetup in my area and growing it, in collaboration with the biggest testing community of the world.
a recognition email from them , and showing that we are growing slowly and it was not one time by showing plans for second meet up.

proof of photos of me speaking at this first meetup also

Doc 7

Proof of speaking at a virtual meetup of 110 people
Proof of invitation to 300 people conference but declining due to time constraints
Proof of invitation to speak at an AI conference 800+ audience , sorting out details for finalising it
Proof of mentoring a refugee for over a year and her LOR , over ADP list( not structured but added just in case)

OC3:( work contributions at the company )

Doc 8:

  • QA process
  • Proof of increase in product quality due to my architecture by 50%
  • Proof of Increase in speed and efficiency of our team by 2x because of this architecture.
  • Explained the challenges addressed, the culture change of the company, and the impact measure using the above data
    supported by reference letter from my current lead (docu sign)

Doc 9:

  • Reference letter from Old company team lead ( 1 pager) ( docusign)
  • Screenshot of the download of the tool
  • Explain the challenges addressed, architectural changes, and the impact on product quality.
    Included testimonials as referral from team lead above)

Doc 10:

  • Product Owner Certification and how it applies to the business aspect
  • scale up plan for AI tools done by me for making ramp-up plans for the whole company ( screenshot of confluence page plan blured out the private stuff.)
  • Explained ownership and the impact it brings to the company in terms of revenue

cc @Francisca_Chiedu @ask4jubad @hsafra @pahuja
And everyone else please feel free to give your feedback
I would really appreciate your feedback

I am extremely confused by the remarks as most of the things have been specified in the application already. :frowning:

Screenshot 2024-12-18 at 10.45.21
Screenshot 2024-12-18 at 10.45.21708×838 89.1 KB

1 Like
2

OC2:

Their comment:
“…There is inadequate evidence of how these efforts have contributed to the

advancement of the field.”

Answer:

Looks like oc2 doc 1and oc2 doc 3 might have been overlooked

Advancement of sector outside work:

  1. Co-started with test-flix and now the city representative of a meetup for QA’s establishing an ecosystem for QA in Frankfurt, to get together and share ideas/knowledge and innovate.
    ( supporting proofs:
    oc2 doc 1 first screenshot
    LOR Co-founder of testflix - paragraph titled City representative
    email from marketing head of test flix oc2 doc1 page 3
    oc2 doc1 page 2 his LinkedIn chat )

Note: the talk image might look similar to oc2 doc3 and MC but they are different check the dates, the testflix company uses the same template for announcing events.

  1. Talks or conference speaking that have had a significant viewership
    a. My talk about AI and shift left, advocating for a change. 110 audience (oc2 doc 3) (High impact/success stated in reference letter from Aushtosh Garg co-founder of test flix under the section: first talk)

b. My invitations to speak at Gautham (declined by me due to time issues) 500+ audience (oc2 doc 3)

c. My invitation to speak at Eurostar AI (still discussing details, OC2 doc3) 800+ audience (oc2 doc 3)

Their comment:
“Whilst we appreciate the

candidate’s efforts with the Code Your Future and ADP list, there is insufficient evidence to prove they

align with the structured mentorship program (a rigorous selection process of their mentees) required

for this criteria…”

Answer:

  1. Rigorous selection criteria:
    Code your future, does rigorous interviews with all new volunteers. As the interviews are a call I do not have a screenshot of the call itself.

QA volunteer interview Zehra(oc2 doc2 image 3 ), you can see Karen(KFK) mentioning the usual QA interview test that every qa volunteer goes through, also you can see that appointments are made in Slack for a slack for a call.
proving how new volunteers are taken i.e. interview calls and a QA test.
free plan of Slack does not store chats beyond 90 days and I have been in CYF for 7 months so my initial chat has been auto-deleted.

  1. Structured mentorship:
    Code your future detailed structured plans can be found on their website publicly, as it is very intensive, They have not been pulled in the application.

  2. Impact on the field:
    Code Your Future helps refugees and disadvantaged groups by training them (oc2 doc2 reference leter from karen paragraph 2 ) and helping them get jobs in the sector. Which in turn brings more people into the field and helps advance the field.
    (Oc2 doc 2 image 5 ) proof of a successful candidate who got a job after my mentoring.

OC 3:

Their comment:
“While we appreciate the candidate’s highly valued contribution

to Decadis……, there is insufficient evidence of how this candidate’s contribution has

contributed to the field.”

Answer

According to the guidelines, “Having worked as a key engineer in the core product of a start-up, contributing to its success,” is a valid contribution. However, feedback stated I haven’t contributed to the “field,” whereas my proofs focus on company growth and product impact.

OC3 Doc 2
In OC3 Doc 2, proofs for contributing to the company reaching ~£1.2 million in revenue.

  • My contributions resulted in high-quality tools, as evidenced by customer ratings and lack of bug complaints, leading to our tool being the #1 app in the Atlassian Marketplace.
    • [1. OC3 Doc 2, Page 1, Section 1: Links to live Atlassian Marketplace tools for ratings and customer comments]
    • [2. Confirmed in LOR from team lead in OC3 Doc 2, Page 3 para 1 link to public site]
  • The high number of internal bugs logged for each product showcases the high quality of the tools.
    • [OC3 Doc 2, Page 1: Bug logged graphs for each tool]
  • My knowledge and vision in test automation led to a cultural change in the company
    • Supporting Proof:LOR from team lead in Decadis, OC3 Doc 2, Page 3, Paragraph 2, Line 3

Their comment:
“While we appreciate the candidate’s highly valued contribution

to …. Phrase, there is insufficient evidence of how this candidate’s contribution has

contributed to the field.”

Answer

Oc3 doc 1:Delivery time reduced by 3x and 50% better quality due to my strategy.
Retaining customers and deliver faster than competitors, driving faster company growth.
Supporting proofs:

  1. LOR Stephen, CTO, Impact on Phrase section
  2. LOR Wesley, Ex-director of Product, Contributions to Orchestrator team, line 8
  3. Director of QA LOR ,OC3 Doc1, p. 3, para. 3, line 5 “My ideas were recognized as visionary, leading to my promotion to lead a department to implement my vision across teams”

OC3 Doc3:
I created a release and devlopment strategy to transition from machine learning to generative AI, improving translation quality.
Supporting Proofs:

  1. LOR CTO: section: Leadership & Innovation, line 3: “His knowledge and vision were exceptional in AI.” also states: “I am leading all AI initiatives in the company from quality aspect”
  2. LOR Wesley, Ex-director of Product, section: AI innovation in the company. Customer growth due to my initiatives.

Also one of the statements in MC remarks says that one of my MC goes towards contributions towards the company. maybe that can also be considered for OC3? but I can only write 4 comments

2 Likes
3

@Francisca_Chiedu i saw that you have an excellent grasp on these rejection topics. I would love to know your expert opinions. sorry for tagging you separately just could really be grateful for some help

4

@pahuja would love to have your input on my case, saw your excellent know-how on this front and it is really exceptional.

5

Sorry to hear about your outcome. Just a comment relating to your ask about one of your MCs being considered for OC3: I don’t think that’s possible in an appeal, you’d have to make a new application and submit that evidence under the criteria you want it assessed for.

That said, the feedback seems like a good opportunity to appeal and clearly point out the answers they were looking for in the evidences. I suggest you reach out to Priyanka on LinkedIn for a more structured session and see if she can work with you to put together an appeal if possible.

1 Like
6

I think you can demonstrate your impact at code your future and how you contribute to building a pipeline of talents in the sector. You have advanced the sector bt ensuring that people who ordinarily won’t have had the loot to work in the sector can start their career in tech. Also provide metrics to show your contribution.

I suspect the issue is how you have arranged your evidence. Do a better story telling with the endorsement review. You can overturn the decision.

2 Likes
7

thank you so much @Francisca_Chiedu ! i am extremely grateful for your input. i wish the best for you .
thank you so much for the positive words.
so I am guessing you say I should make a new submission?

Any tips regarding oc3? i am extremely lost there as the comment is very generic

8

I am saying you can ask for a review and explain how your evidence meet the criteria. Also point out any document that was not considered. Share metrics of your impact. Give more details of how code your future has advance the sector

9

Applied for a appeal and endorsed! woop woop!
All thanks to @pahuja ,
She was pretty transparent with me about my case, my chances and the risk. highlighting the things that were overlooked by the GTV team.
Also, she framed the appeal in a way that highlighted the points in a very professional yet clear way.
would 100% recommend here hands down. thank you for your help @pahuja

8 Likes
10

Wow, congratulations!!!

Can you give more context into how you structured your appeal :grin::grin::grin:

11

@bukola
yes actually in my case they did not open few of my evidences and missed them.
also some screenshots were overlooked and the field impact of my work was not linked together.
so I pointed them towards the field impact which 3d party stated in my application joining it to proof of the work that I did.
and pointed them to the overlooked docs.

2 Likes
12

So happy for you! And thanks for the kind words :pray:

1 Like
13

Noted. Congratulations once again !

14

congrats can you say what is your time line ?

15

Congrats!!

Once you emailed your appeal document, was there any confirmation email or we just hope they have received email and wait for response?

16

there will be confirmation email

17

If you submit on weekend. would you still get a confirmation email?