Hi all,
I have applied for exceptional promising under Global Talent Visa on 10 Oct 2023, and successfully received endorsement for my application on 31 Oct. Just thought of helping others with the list of evidences I have submitted.
Here is my edit history:
10 Oct 2023 20:59 (BST) submitted.
1st edited: 11 Oct 2023 10:21 (BST) - *when I received my endorsement, home office mentioned I applied on 11 Oct instead although it is submitted on 10 Oct night time.
2nd edited: 21 Oct 2023 08:10 (BST)
3rd edited: 23 Oct 2023 19:25 (BST)
4th edited: 28 Oct 2023 12:53 (BST)
5th edited: 28 Oct 2023 20:49 (BST)
Letter of recommendation (LoRs)
1st LOR - CEO from a UK fintech company
2nd LOR - Operation Director of an EdTech company
3rd LOR - Head of software engineering from my current company (Fintech)
4th LOR - Vice President of Technology Operation & Delivery from my current company (Fintech) - used one optional evidence space
CV - I am a career changer from legal to software engineer
Thus, my CV covers some legal experience & qualification on top of my software engineer experience (just 1 year and 8 months). Fully utilised the 3 pages A4. Every single experience, awards, publication, blogs or projects comes with google drive link where I put evidence to prove it.
Personal Statement - It covers why I move from legal, to Software engineer, and list of reasons why I want the flexibility of the visa in the UK. I shows that I already made the contributions to digital tech industry, and how the flexibility of the visa can accelerates that.
Mandatory Criteria
MC evidence 1
- description and link showing I won one of the national tech award, and explain that there is over 1300 nominees (link to the announcement of over 1300 nominees), which I stand out from them.
- screenshot and link showing I have shortlisted for another tech award under two categories, compiled an excel sheet showing nearly 1600 nominees and only 2.7% people make it to finalist with two tech award categories, plus others links to the nominees pages, categories definition page, and the judges page. Explain that to be finalist I need to fit into those categories eligibility, and the judges are established expert in the industry, and has recognised me as an exceptional promising.
- student of the year award for 2018-2019 academic year. It is not computer science degree, but digital business technology related. Have modules like machine learning, data analytic, e-business technologies and tools, data management, etc. Screenshot of the awards, my modules, and small part of transcript confirmed that the award is awarded for the highest grade achiever in the degree.
- screenshot showing I lead a team of 4 in a fintech hackathon & startup competition and make it to top 5 finalist. Also, link to the handbook which covers agenda of the event, mentoring sessions showing those mentors who are also the judges, diagram showing how the fintech ideas works and feedback received from 10 judges for my fintech idea, and link to my team mates’ linkedin showing at that time, only me have those technology related degree.
MC evidence 2
- Screenshot of Official Year End 2022 performance review. Explain that the feedback shows that I lead two project, and also a key member to one of the major product.
- Screenshot showing my year end performance indicator where I scored the highest rating of “Phenomenal”. in the indicator which reflect in receiving maximum amount of bonus.
- Screenshot showing company’s definition for the “Phenomenal” rating. To fit this rating, I’ll need fit to the definition and link back to the major product I have built.
- Screen shot of Official mid year 2023 performance review which comes with promotion from junior to mid level engineer, where I got promotion in just 18 months.
- Screenshot showing great feedback occasionally received throughout 2022 and 2023.
- Screenshot showing I received employee of the month in Aug 2023, and the eligibility to be nominated, and the leadership team in the company to decide who receive the award.
- Screenshot showing number of employees, and number of tech employees, and I have outperformed many of them to receive the employee of the month award.
MC evidence 3
Letter of Reference from Vice President of engineering.
Optional Criteria 2 - evidence 4
- Screenshot showing mobile app record that I have teach over 9 Python and SQL programming course, which last many weeks, and number of students for each course, accumulating over 300 students.
- Screenshot with links to article showing SQL and python is high demanding course in the UK, and description explain that myself and students are able to create many applications using these languages.
- Letter of reference from edTech company
Optional Criteria 2 - Evidence 5
- Screenshot showing I continue to provide support to students outside the designated teaching hours, helping them debugging, explaining the issue of the codes, etc.
- Screenshot showing Zoom message where they thanks me for teaching, with screenshot of their attendance confirming they are my students.
- Screenshot showing Linkedin appreciation post, where they tagged me for teaching them programming, and after the course, they has become software engineer and links to those posts.
Optional Criteria 2 - Evidence 6
- Description and screenshot showing I put my innovative fintech idea to app design development and website development. Screenshot of figma account with over 100 Mobile User Interfaces and web deisgn for my idea, and the figma prototype links for them to playaround.
- Screenshot of on-going email conversation where I approached banking as a service and open banking technologies providers for the foundation of my app, recognised by them and therefore lead to on-going discussion
- Screenshot and link to the my survey before starting the project
- Screenshot showing linkedin message discussion with potential CTOs (who are experienced expert from big tech companies like Meta, Jp Morgan, etc), recognised by them and therefore lead to on-going discussion.
- Screenshot showing my participation of an International Fintech Hackathon, developed a cryptocurrencies wallet with three other team member are from a US fintech company, youtube link explain the wallet, screenshot of list of emails confirming they have invited me to join them for the hackathon.
- Screenshot of me design the mobile and web user interface for one of the team member from the hackathon. It is also a cryptocurrencies project. Some description explaining the import of these practical application, and link explaining the project by the team mate.
Optional Criteria 3 - Evidence 7
- Initial Employment Contract with salary and bonus terms and conditions, with description that I have grow my salary for 62.5% in just 18 months, and with bonus and on-call pay, I can easily exceed X amounts
- Performance review outcome letter, confirming salary increment from time to time.
- Screenshot of announcement in Slack of me getting promotion to mid level engineer
- Screenshot showing typical years required to become mid level engineer is 3 years+ and I achieved in 18 months.
- Screenshot showing average paid for backend development in the UK, and I am well-above the salary threshold, especially in just 18 months.
Optional Criteria 3 - Evidence 8
- Screenshot showing jira dashboard, where me and another engineer that build a major product, and I have done nearly 75% of the products’ functionalities.
- Screenshot showing one of the epic, and the number of tickets are align with the number of ticket in the dashboard.
- Screenshot showing Jira Epic where I lead two small projects, done nearly 80% of the project.
- Screenshot showing another jira dashboard, with another three engineers, for on-going contributions.
(* with many description to explain the work and functionalist I have built)
Optional Criteria 3 - Evidence 9
- Screenshot showing my git profile (work not personal)
- Screenshot showing 4 repositories’ lines of codes where I am the main contributor to all of it.
- Screenshot showing my on-call schedule for my team
- Many links of news showing the major product I have built always have the best offering to the public in the UK.
- 3 Screenshot of Tableau showing the product’s performance that I have built, attracted near to XXX millions in just few months, and in one week can attracted X millions, which translate into X million a day.
