Should I apply?

Hi all,

I have experience over 20 years in IT.

  • The first 10 years as Software engineer/manager. During that time, I was a top Java programmer only and used to manage 20 developers. I can get a letter from CIO level while I worked there. It was not a product led company.
  • The next 5 years, I was Architect in Ericsson. Again, it was not a product company. I can get a letter from this company as well at some senior levels.
  • Then, I have developed a healthy food business creating mobile app for the UK market. I had to shut down my company as I did not make money and no budget left.
  • Now I am working in Data & Analytics domain as Chief Architect in UK. But that is not a product-led company. I can get a letter from my boss here. The only exceptional thing I had done there is that I came with several innovation ideas in Analytics. One of those ideas is marketable. Thus, I am keeping to myself to develop it on the side. Once I have done with the POC, I am planning to use this idea to quit the company if I get the Global Talent visa and open up my own business to make it happen. The idea is all about ML & AI. I am also coding it.

Does it makes sense? Currently, I am on Tier 2. And I do not want to wait another 2 years to open up my business and stuck with the company I am working for. That is the motivation.

Should I go ahead with the above evidence? Does it fly or just difficult?

Many Thanks…

In general, your profile looks good enough to merit an application. Apart from that your questions are too generic and vague to answer.

Thanks very much for the reply. I have provided a general profile.
If you have specific questions, I would love to hear…
Many Thanks.

I have given you a general answer.

If you have specific questions, I would love to hear.

:grinning:

Seriously though @ck71 - the respondents on this forum are volunteers and have full time jobs. We won’t have the bandwidth to tease out both the questions and the answers for individual cases. As a candidate, it is your prerogative to put together pointed questions on which we can provide any inputs/insights.

If you want general counselling inputs on your case, you should perhaps engage an immigration lawyer who specialise in this visa.

1 Like

Thanks a lot for the answers.

I have thought together my overall action plan with specific questions. Sorry. Tt is a little long.

  • 3 recommendation letters from well-established product led companies highlighting contribution to their innovative products.
    • 1 letter from CIO (at that time he was director). I worked for this company 10 years back. It is a consultancy but creates products to sell its customers. I will get the letter highlighting contributions made for some products and code development as Java programmer, architect and engineering manager (managing 20 developers) The contributions made was the development of SMS gateway. As this was long time back, I have no evidence on my contributions made there with screen snapshots.
    • 1 letter from my current company which is consultancy at Director level. My work references in the letter will be:
      • Creation of an internal product to sell to customers as Microsoft partner. This product is on the market. It is working on top of Microsoft Teams and awarded by Microsoft for innovation. I have designed its architecture and managed its development mostly and suggested new features. I have not developed code. I will provide evidence with screen snapshots for architecture, product, etc.
      • I am advising to in their Data and AI journey to become data & insight driven by defining their Data Strategy, Data Architecture. I can provide Data Strategy documents/presentations on how to navigate a large organization with all the capabilities required to use data & AI to create the required use-cases. I can provide examples of the use-cases I have created/led such as forecasting demand for major retailers.
      • I have hands on experience on Data Engineering using Spark but coding is not my main duty. (I can provide a github link to the accelerator I have created for Azure to create a Data Platform automatically) This is not innovation.
    • 1 letter from a big Airline from Head of Engineering. My work references in the letter will be:
      • Creation of Data Hub to serve data within the company from a central internal product using Big Data engineering technologies. I can show some code for this. Again this is not innovation.
  • Eligibility criteria:
    • Recognized as a leading talent in the digital technology sector: I will provide evidence aligned to the recommendation letters in this section. Additionally,
      • Thought Leadership: I have written numerous medium articles with 10 K reads and also articles within the company for Thought Leadership. I can also publish some articles in Forbes (if necessary) I have created whitepapers/presentations for industry in the data domain as well as marketing material for large organizations.
      • Commitment to Open-source projects: None.
      • High Salary: My current salary should be more than enough for the criteria.
    • Made a significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions to the field as a founder
      • I founded a healthy Takeaway company in UK in 2015. I have developed web/mobile app. I can show the mobile app screenshots. The company registration documents. But, I lost the IOS code. The company also did not make revenue.
      • Currently I am building an innovative solution in AI led decision making using ML technologies. The POC will be completed in 3 months and I will wrap it for demo. I am writing the code as well. I can show all the evidence.
      • In parallel, I have teamed up with a security expert to create a web based Risk management solution (nothing similar on the market) It will use some ML technologies to figure out the security risk in major organizations. I can provide the evidence for that. My intention is to get the Global Talent visa and go for these 2 products.

Please, So my specific questions are:

  • The reference letters are good enough with the evidence mentioned above? Do I need to prove each recommendation letter mapping to the project I have done with evidences?
  • Is my eligibility criteria for Recognized as a leading talent enough with the evidence mentioned above? To prove thought leadership, should I now attempt to publish an article with them?
  • Is my eligibility criteria for “significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions” enough? Would the demo products be fine? Should I wait until the demo product is ready before submitting my application for endorsement?

Do you see the merit above for a qualification and would you encourage me to apply?

Hi @ck71

The reference letters are good enough with the evidence mentioned above?

The letters should definitely be a worthy start. One concern I have for the letter from 10 years back is that it doesn’t fit the requirement mentioned on the website - “Any activity you are providing as evidence of recognition should have occurred within the past 5 years.” Is it possible to consider a letter that refers to your work within 5 years as a replacement?

Enough or not, only the TechNation panel can decide, but it definitely seems promising.

Do I need to prove each recommendation letter mapping to the project I have done with evidences?

It is always helpful to map your evidences to match the reference letters, but not exhaust your evidences just on that. So, if a little bit of your evidence can come from the projects in the reference letters, that’d be perfect.

Is my eligibility criteria for Recognized as a leading talent enough with the evidence mentioned above?

It is promising.

To prove thought leadership, should I now attempt to publish an article with them?

The more and merrier. Who is “them”?

Is my eligibility criteria for “significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions” enough?

Promising

Would the demo products be fine? Should I wait until the demo product is ready before submitting my application for endorsement?

Obviously, having completed products in production is a help, but I am not sure how much you lose out by having only Demo products. If your demo is going to be ready somewhat soon, then might be worth waiting, but again I am not sure how much weightage that might carry. If you have extenuating circumstances to apply now, you might still stand a decent chance.

Do you see the merit above for a qualification and would you encourage me to apply?

There is nothing here that seems to be a red flag. So if the evidences and the references pan out well and the content is put together in a structured manner, I see a decent case. Beyond that, the decision is yours.

1 Like

Hi Shreeniwas
Thanks a lot indeed. You have been so helpful.

I will try to replace the old company letter with recent one. One last question, If you do not mind, Can I get a letter from someone who left the company and currently was not working on a letter without logo? Otherwise, I will try to get two letters from my current company from different people for the same work I have done there which is almost a duplicate in content with some modifications…

Many thanks and have a lovely day.
[/quote]

In one of my letters, my recommenders used the logo of his current company (he is CEO of the current startup) where he talked about my contributions in a previous company, though I am not involved in his current company. Is that an option?

Besides that, I don’t think this forum has consensus on whether letters without logo work or not. All my reference letters were on letter head, whereas my supporting letters were without one. My guess is to think about the trade off on your side and decide which way to go. You need to weigh in on (a) whether a letter-without-logo but substantial accretive to your case is better or (b) a letter on a letterhead but presumably duplicative to the case.

While I am not in your place, and you need to make your own decision, I would have gone with (a).

ps: I do not represent TechNation. This information is given only for educative purposes. Please do your own due diligence before making a decision.

1 Like

Thanks a lot Shreeniwas. You are great help to people. All the best.

Hi Shreeniwas

Sorry, I have asked a lot as the process is vague.
But, may I also ask a few more please:

  • Is it OK if I get the Endorsement letters now and apply in 3-4 months?
  • Is it OK if submit my articles to “Forbes online magazine” now and it is not considered a recent publication? And do you think “Forbes online magazine for senior IT professionals” is international online publication?
  • You mentioned Supporting letters, is this some extra letters from other people I know talking about me, etc. I am not clear about the Supporting letters and its content. I have searched and did not find much about it.
  • I assume, TechNation’s mindset is to find leaders who is good in his field, who can contribute to economy and who can create unique products. Although I hear stories that they even refuse highly skilled Data Scientist who worked in product companies as their documents published recently or the company that they worked were not part of a product-led company, etc. As my 3 of 2 evidences are from consulting companies and the other one is from a big Airline which is not creating products to sell, I assume I need to focus on how unique the things I have done in these companies. I am worried that I will be rejected on the basis that my references/experience from consulting companies. Or should I focus on the value I will create from the company I will setup with unique products on the market after getting the GT visa? So, any specific advice is appreciated to turn this around.

Many Thanks in advance…

There is nothing on the TechNation side that seems to exclude older reference letters. However, I would like to believe that closer the letter is to the date of application, the better. Why not ask our endorsers to wait while you do whatever it is you need to do in the intervening period?

Is it OK if submit my articles to “Forbes online magazine” now and it is not considered a recent publication? And do you think “Forbes online magazine for senior IT professionals” is international online publication?

I don’t understand the first sentence. Secondly, what I think doesn’t matter. If you think it is a well read magazine, then go for it. If there is a public record of their circulation, you can screenshot and attach it for reference. If there is an analytics page showing how many readers have read your article, that might help too.

You mentioned Supporting letters, is this some extra letters from other people I know talking about me, etc. I am not clear about the Supporting letters and its content. I have searched and did not find much about it.

Please see My TechNation Application - September 2020 - #16 by Shreeniwas_Iyer on how I used supporting letters. These are extra letters outside of the reference letters. Content is entirely open-ended.

I assume I need to focus on how unique the things I have done in these companies.

Yes, you are thinking along the right lines.

I am worried that I will be rejected on the basis that my references/experience from consulting companies. Or should I focus on the value I will create from the company I will setup with unique products on the market after getting the GT visa?

Your reference letters are typically based on past work. A reference letter based on your vision is not a reference letter, but fiction. However, you can use your personal statement to paint a picture of how you plan to put your skills to work.

As for your worry about being rejected, I have already answered it in this previous comment - Am I eligible to apply? Please check - #5 by Shreeniwas_Iyer - I have nothing else to add to that comment.