Hi all,
Found out about the Global Talent Visa about a year ago and I’ve been following up with this Forum to prepare my application. Firstly my appreciation to everyone supporting this forum it was really helpful in my process.
I applied for Exceptional Promise on the 9th of August and got endorsed as an Exceptional Talent on the 26th of August about 13 working days. I started my Career as a UI UX Designer and Transitioned into Cybersecurity all under 5 years. Although I’ve been very much involved in Freelance Projects and Volunteering outside my day to day as a designer, whilst my Job as a Cybersecurity Professional for a Bank.
See Below the following documents I submitted for the application.
LOR 1: From the CISO of my company (Bank), who I’ve worked with for three years and knows both me and my technical abilities better than anyone.
LOR 2: From the CISO of another Bank who knows my work and was also a Judge on the Panel for a Cybersecurity Finalist Award I won.
LOR 3: From the VP Head of Sales of a Fintech Unicorn in Africa, we worked together on projects in my Bank and also on her Start-Up.
Personal Statement -
My Personal Statement spoke about how I started Design and the story of how I transitioned into Cybersecurity. Spoke about my Job and highlighted my achievements in this field and how they will benefit the UK. My major point was hammering on the Skill shortage in Cybersecurity and how I will contribute to solving this problem alongside working.
Mandatory Criteria
Evidence 1: Evidence of a Large Technology Project where I was the Lead Designer to develop a Conflict Early Warning System for UNDP. In the evidence, I showed a screenshot of the first initial project meeting, Design screens, a screenshot of the development platform, a Link to news about the project, Screenshots of Wireframes, and Links to the Live application.
Evidence 2: Recommendation Letter to Support the above evidence above from the Solutions Architect of the Project and founder of a reputable technology firm, highlighting my contribution to the project and also mentioning other projects we have worked on together.
Evidence 3: Evidence of receiving a Finalist award for my contribution to Cybersecurity and Technology
Evidence 4: A recommendation Letter from the Co-founder of this award supports my Claim. (This was also my second recommendation letter stated above)
Evidence 5: Evidence of serving as an assessment Judge for a Cybersecurity Community, assessing the work of individuals who want to join the community.
Optional Criteria
Evidence 6: Evidence of Thought leadership about cybersecurity on a newspaper in my country with over 1.3mil visits monthly, This Evidence also showed evidence of me starting of Cybersecurity Website for Awareness and has reached about 13k visitors in the last 6 months, List of about 10 Volunteers under my leadership and endorsements on the website from different Cybersecurity Leaders.
Evidence 7: Evidence of Mentorship in Cybersecurity and Technology. The evidence shows my acceptance email into a structured mentorship platform, My profile, a List of the completed sessions in the last 6 months, reviews from mentees, and a reference letter for the Co-founder of the Platform.
Evidence 8: Evidence of Significant contribution to a Technology Project in my Bank. The project is related to Blockchain, Screenshots of the Dashboard, Excel screenshots of work done, and a reference letter from DCISO of my Bank stating my contribution, how the project was outside my regular Job activities, and its impact so far.
Evidence 9: Evidence of Employment in my Bank showing my starting salary, Promotion after a few years showing a percentage increase of about 85%, a screenshot of my appointment as Assistant SOC manager, Screenshot of my current payslip to validate salary increase.
**Evidence 10:**Evidence of Contribution to another Technology Project in my Bank. The project was about a payment system. Screenshots of the App in playstore, the application flow, and a reference letter from the Business manager stating my contribution, how the project was outside my regular Job activities, and its impact so far.
To close this all, my application was very detailed, for all evidence I used the STAR method approach to explain them. First, the situation and how the evidence meets the criteria, What was the Task, responsibility, and project at hand, What I did (Action), and the results (Impact). I made sure for every section there was an external validation to back up my claim. For example, links to live websites about the project, Links to external sources about the impact of the project, and in situations where these were not available reference letters came in handy.
I hope this helps someone make a successful application as I have.
Feel free to reach out to me for any questions, I’d be happy to assist just like I have been assisted 