My story - I am a product owner/Business analyst with 12+ years of experience in Finance technology having worked at firms like JP Morgan and state street. In addition, I have also designed various innovative products for different startups in the capacity of product head, CTO, etc.
The first application and the subsequent appeal to the application were rejected with comments stating that JP Morgan and State street global advisors are not being “product-led tech companies” in spite of showcasing the architecture diagrams and the work done on designing and creation the internal tech products for the same.
The second application was submitted with primary recommendation letters from the start-ups of where I designed and implemented products (a car selling platform, a mental health and well-being app, and a chatbot for a digital marketing company ). The JP Morgan and state street letters were submitted as secondary pieces of evidence.
Along with this evidence 4 articles on different media platforms, youtube videos educative videos on digital transformation with 5k + views on each video, and around 12+ certifications (from reputed institutes like AWS, Oracle, scrum alliance, etc) varying from cloud tech to data analytics to leadership were submitted.
I have 12+ years of work experience in my field. This application was submitted in the “promise” category and not the talent category as the 1st time they disregarded my “product designing and implementation” experience at JP Morgan and state street.
The application was rejected again stating many points :
The popularity/credibility of the senior members who have provided the recommendation letters was questioned even after providing the linkedin profiles, addresses and phone numbers(These are 20/25+ years of experienced people from JP Morgan and state street and a CTO from a reputed firm and also the people of my similar age whom I have started the start-ups with).
My desire to help NHS to relieve the mental health backlog on them was questioned on basis that there are too many start-ups working in that space.
It was also said that I had provided too many pieces of evidence, which is confusing.
I am filing an appeal. But my question to you is what could I have done best or what can i change in my third application?
I wish I could give you something useful, but the fact is that your appeal will have to be based on very personal circumstances that is hard to comment upon from outside, partly because (a) many of us didn’t have to go to appeal and hence we don’t know what works and what doesn’t and (b) your circumstances will be yours and tough to comment unless we have seen things in more detail.
That said, let me offer some unsubstantiated (please take them with a pinch of salt) thoughts.
Once the panel determined that JP Morgan and State Street aren’t product led companies, re-applying with their recommendation letters may not make much of a difference. You might need to find 3 recommenders all of which are working in product-led companies. You somehow seem to relate age to suitability of the recommender - I don’t think that matters that much. Their profile should be strong enough, regardless of their age.
I really can’t comment on this as I don’t know about this space at all. Perhaps you can try rephrasing your personal letter to be a bit wider rather than focusing on one problem in one domain?
Can’t comment unless we know how many evidences you provided, but this one seems new to me.
I think you shouldn’t have added JP Morgan and State Street in your second application. You should have focused on recommendation letters from product-led digital technology companies you have worked with. You also need to explain that your recommendation letter where written by experts in digital tech who have worked in various companies and serve as CIO in their companies. Also articulate the impact of your work with facts and figures.
The stage 2 of my second application which is the appeal was rejected too citing working in JP Morgan and State Street.
Both the applications were made with lot of investment of effort and time.
Should I make a third application based only on my outside of full time job activities?
Tech nation does not understands that entire banking world is based on “digitization” and are hell bent on their “own” definition, which gives them a leeway with words to possibly rejecting anything citing a “gray” area.
Hey @rajvall, sorry to hear that…
That is pretty unfortunate because I always thought Fintech makes for one of the best cases for digital talent.
What is the specific wording of the rejection?