Hi everyone, I need assistance with drafting my appeal.
I was denied the Mandatory criteria and optional criteria 3, and was awarded optional criteria 2. Part of the feedback is captured below.
MC: I included evidence of high profile speaking engagements and media appearances, which were acknowledged. However, my contributions to the growth of a cybersecurity nonprofit was downplayed – “but there is no relevant evidence offered regarding the growth of the organisation, or its
impact within the digital technology sector”.
OC2: The applicant has submitted relevant evidence that demonstrates participation in structured and relevant mentorship programmes, as well as a number of speaking engagements relevant to the sector. We have therefore awarded Optional Criteria 2.
OC3: The reference letter from the CEO of xxx summarises the applicant’s contributions as
advice, lead generation, introductions and content marketing, which cannot be considered significant.
The evidence of significant contribution provided by the applicant cites a number of cyber-security
assessments they have conducted, but such activity is not significant or impactful, but the typical activity one would expect of somebody in such a role.
I need to highlight the things they overlooked or did not consider valuable, like the importance of security assessments to a digital product startup, where I voluntarily offered such services outside my scope of work - Business Advisor. Also, to emphasize that the role of digital marketing to a business is as important as physical marketing to its lead generation and success in today’s connected world. Also, the impact of the cybersecurity nonprofit was described in the letter by its President, stating its activities locally and internationally. Lastly, my critical involvement in 4 major cybersecurity industry initiatives led by 2 government and 2 private organisations, was completely ignored, and this evidence was in support of the mandatory criteria.
If there are evidence in your Mandatory criteria that was not acknowledged then you need to point the assessor to it. State the number of evidence you provided and how they demonstrate that you are a potential leader. I don’t understand how you mixed digital marketing and cybersecurity in your impact? Aside letter from the CEO, did you provide architectural diagrams and other evidence to show your impact?
Thanks for the response. I will point out what was ignored.
Digital marketing, lead generation, and the likes, were inserted to show commercial contributions, while the security assessments were to show technical contributions. I included some of the input that was used in the product - which is mentioned in the CEO’s letter, as well as reports from the security assessments I did for 2 digital product companies (IoT device & web application).
You are applying as a technical applicant so adding “Digital marketing, lead generation, and the likes” sounds like jack of all trade. What do you mean by included some input? What there a descriptive architectural diagram showing your contribution?
The digital product is web-based, so my input referred to the content and scripts I wrote. Users of the platform will be taught certain cybersecurity topics, part of which was developed by me.
Regarding the technical contribution, there is no place for an architectural diagram. It is a requirement be multiple globally acceptable standards and laws, that security assessments be conducted on digital assets. This is a very vital step in preventing cyber attacks as it helps the organisation strengthen the weak points in the system. So my evidence for this contribution was the report generated after the assessment, and a letter from the CEO.
On the jack of all trades comment, I get your point, but is it such a bad thing if a technical person also has business skills? I thought that it would be a plus to show that I have more than just the technical skills because the commercial contributions are equally important to the success of the organisation.
Best to follow tech nation and put your best foot forward. In any case, you have to demonstrate the impact of your contribution ti the organisation, you can use commercial value to quantify your impact.
Francisca, if you are a startup founder and bootstrapping a company you will be a jack of all trades. A founder starting a business from scratch will take on all responsibilities till some revenue is created