Overqualified & Overlooked? The Immigrant Workplace Reality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo

You did the hard part — you got the job. But for many immigrant professionals, that's when the real challenge begins.

In this episode of the Thrive Careers Podcast, host Olajumoke Fatoki sits down with Dr. Lola Adeyemo — CEO of EQI Mindset, TEDx speaker, Equal Opportunity Commissioner, and founder of the nonprofit Immigrants in Corporate — for an honest, layered conversation about what workplace life is really like for immigrants navigating corporate culture in North America.

Dr. Adeyemo draws on nearly two decades in Fortune 250 STEM companies, her award-winning book Thriving in Intersectionality, and her research across immigrant communities from Africa, Europe, and Asia to explain why so many qualified professionals stay stuck — and what both individuals and organizations can do to change that.

🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:

✦ The silent suffering behind closed doors — why immigrant professionals keep their heads down and what it's actually costing them mentally and professionally

✦ Visa fear and the underemployment trap — how immigration status keeps people locked in roles far below their qualification level

✦ The overqualified immigrant cycle — why going back to school is often the wrong move and what to do instead

✦ The gap between DEI statements and real inclusion — what companies are getting wrong and why it matters in 2026

✦ What organizations must actually do — specific structural measures to create workplaces where immigrant professionals can thrive

✦ The curb-cut effect — how designing for the most marginalized employees improves the experience for everyone

✦ What gives Dr. Lola hope — the growing movement of advocates refusing to stay silent

✦ The Nigerian food story — a powerful, simple example of what real belonging looks like in practice

📌 KEY INSIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• "Talent is welcome in the US workforce until it becomes a threat." — Dr. Lola Adeyemo

• You have enough education. What you need is in-country experience — even if it's unpaid.

• Equity is not treating everyone the same. It is recognizing that everyone needs something different.

• When you design for the most underserved, you improve the experience for everyone.

• Your role as a leader is not to choose how your employees feel belonging. It is to create the environment so th

Transcript

[00:07]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting episode of the Thrive Careers Podcast. My name is Olajumoke Fatoki and I am so glad you're here with me today. On this show, we talk a lot about how immigrant professionals and career pivoters can land their dream jobs — how to ace interviews, navigate the hiring process, build the right networks. But today we are going somewhere we haven't gone enough: what happens after you get the job?

Because for so many immigrant professionals in the workplace, getting the offer letter is not the finish line. It's the starting line of a whole new set of challenges. The silent suffering. The workplace inclusion gaps. The cultural navigation nobody prepares you for. That is what today's conversation is about. And I am so excited.

[01:04]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
We have someone in the house who truly gets it. Her name is Dr. Lola Adeyemo. Dr. Adeyemo is the CEO of EQI Mindset, a management consulting firm focused on employee engagement and workplace inclusion. She is also the founder of Immigrants in Corporate, Incorporated — a nonprofit empowering immigrant professionals navigating corporate America. Dr. Adeyemo brings almost two decades of experience in Fortune 250 STEM companies. She is a TEDx speaker, a San Diego Equal Opportunity Commissioner, and the author of the award-winning book, Thriving in Intersectionality. She also hosts her own podcast — Thriving in Intersectionality — where she goes even deeper into these conversations around belonging at work and intersectionality in the workplace.

In this episode, we are going beyond the surface. We are talking about the silent suffering of immigrant professionals, the overqualified immigrant trap, and what employers and organizations must actually do to create real inclusive workplaces where every professional — especially those navigating the workplace as newcomers — can truly thrive. Dr. Lola, thank you so much for joining us.

[02:19]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
Thank you for having me. It feels really wonderful to hear my name pronounced correctly — with the right accent, the right intonation. I appreciate it.

[02:31]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
I love that too. It feels special. So this episode is for every immigrant professional who is navigating workplace challenges right now — and for every employer and leader who genuinely wants to do better. Dr. Lola, are you ready for us this morning?

[03:11]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
I am absolutely ready. This is one of my favorite topics. No preparation required — this is lived experience. This is the world I live in every single day. If I can enlighten even one employer and encourage even one immigrant professional, then we have done well today.

[03:58]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
Let's dive straight in. You said something during our pre-call that really stuck with me. You said that immigrant professionals in the workplace don't want to talk — they don't want to rock the boat. They keep their heads down. But what is happening beneath the surface is that they are silently struggling. And I know a lot of our listeners are in exactly that position right now. People who have landed the job, who are grateful to be there, but who are struggling — with fitting in, with workplace culture, with things they can't quite name or bring to the surface.

So can you paint a picture for us? When you work with immigrant professionals through Immigrants in Corporate, what are they telling you about their workplace experiences? What is the silent suffering that is happening behind closed doors?

[05:02]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
Thank you for asking that. It really is the beginning of my own journey too. I came from corporate Nigeria, went through graduate school, and stepped directly into corporate America with Fortune 250 companies — the kind of environments where you can feel like a tiny speck. And for a long time, I felt that. I thought it was just me. The message I kept receiving was: be grateful you have a job. Be grateful you are in America.

But here is what is really happening for immigrant professionals in the workplace. You have all the qualifications. You have the experience. But you are not sure about speaking up. You are not sure about the consequences of visibility. There are so many unwritten rules in North American corporate culture that nobody tells you about. And working hard while staying quiet — that is actually a deeply embedded cultural value in many parts of the world.

For my book, Thriving in Intersectionality, I interviewed immigrants from across Africa, Europe, and Asia. And the workplace challenges were remarkably similar regardless of country of origin. There is a weight that immigrant professionals carry — a sense of responsibility to make the family proud, not to disappoint the people who sacrificed for your opportunity to be here. You carry that cultural pressure into the workplace every single day.

And then there is visa fear — one of the most undertalked barriers in the immigrant career development conversation. Depending on your immigration status, you cannot afford to jeopardize anything. So you take a job just to secure sponsorship. And then you are truly stuck — you cannot grow, cannot change, cannot expand. You just keep working hard and hoping something shifts.

So the silent suffering of immigrant professionals is emotional confusion, feeling stuck in roles far below your qualification level, not knowing how to showcase your skills without feeling like you are showing off, not knowing how to ask for promotion without seeming ungrateful. And underneath it all — the fear that speaking up will cost you everything.

I remember the first time I called myself an immigrant publicly on LinkedIn. Someone said, "I can't believe you use that word for yourself — you're so brave." And I thought: I am an immigrant. I was born in Nigeria. I moved here. There is such a negative connotation attached to the word that using it feels like putting yourself in a box. But I realized — my position gives me the ability to shed light on what everyone else is quietly experiencing. Naming the silent struggle matters.

[09:09]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
Thank you for that. So now that we have been able to name these workplace challenges — what are the actual strategies? How can immigrant professionals begin to navigate those fears?

[09:43]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
The first thing starts with mindset. Accept that you are qualified. You deserve to be in that space. My first job after finishing my master's degree was at Macy's, making $9 an hour. But I did it with pride because I needed to get into the workforce. And I want to say something clearly: we do not need to question whether we belong. A lot of immigrant professionals come into these corporate spaces carrying years of international experience and the moment they step into a new country's workplace, they feel reset — like they are starting from ground zero.

Recognize that: I belong here. I deserve to be in this room. That shift in mindset is not just personal — it is strategic.

The second piece is community, and I believe this is the biggest challenge in immigrant career development. When you move to a new country, you lose your entire professional and social network overnight. The colleagues, the mentors, the friends who knew your work — gone. And you are stepping into this new corporate environment without your people.

So find the right community. Join organizations built around the immigrant professional experience. Find mentors who have walked the same path. Have real conversations with people who understand what navigating the workplace as an immigrant actually looks like.

That is one of the core reasons I started Immigrants in Corporate. Because I was doing workplace inclusion consulting and nobody was naming the immigrant professional as a specific category with specific challenges that look different from every other underrepresented group. When you are in community with people who share your experience, you realize you are not alone. You can walk through difficult situations together — someone can tell you: that behavior from your manager is not okay, here is what you can say, here is how to use your EAP, here is how to find advocates within the organization.

Also — take time to understand your organization. Ask questions. People like to position themselves as the authority when answering questions, so colleagues will often open up and share the unspoken rules if you simply ask.

[12:13]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
Let's go to the next layer. The overqualified immigrant trap — this is something so many people in our audience are living right now. We come in and we just need a foot in the door. There are bills to pay. Many of us sold things back home just to get here. People are counting on us. The career we actually trained for is not immediately accessible. So we take a survival job. And what I have seen again and again is that people get stuck in those survival jobs and do not know how to navigate that move into the career they actually built all those qualifications for. How do immigrant professionals break out of the underemployment trap?

[13:29]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
Yes. And I think the first thing is recognizing the reality clearly. Companies love talent. They love what immigrant professionals bring — the qualifications, the work ethic, the international perspective. But here is the truth: talent is welcome in the North American workforce until it becomes a threat. They welcome your effort. But they do not always want to pay you what that effort is worth. And they do not always want to promote you above someone who is less qualified but has been there longer. Tenure is heavily rewarded in North American workplaces.

Let me use my own story. I finished a master's in biotech. I had worked in corporate Nigeria. I could not find work after graduation and eventually got a call from Macy's — $7 an hour. I went to the interview ready to work hard. The manager could tell. She added $2 to the offer. So now I am looking at $9 an hour after a master's degree. But I went in, I poured myself into it, I took every training available. It was actually a formative experience. But here is what I saw happening around me: if I had stayed, I would have been used. Because culturally, as immigrant professionals, we go in with a gratitude mentality. We want to do our very best because we are grateful for the opportunity. The system takes advantage of that. You get more work, more pats on the back — and more work. You stay stuck in a role that does not match your qualifications, earning wages that do not reflect your education.

So what breaks that cycle? First — do not stop searching. Keep that survival job because you need to pay the bills, but do not limit yourself to that space. And here is the key insight that I want every immigrant professional listening to hear: we often respond to underemployment by getting more education. Another degree. Another certificate. Another course. That is often the wrong move.

At a certain point, you have enough education. What you need is in-country experience. Even if it is an apprenticeship, an internship, a volunteer role — get real-time, hands-on, local experience. You can even look for project opportunities within your current company. Find ways to expand your scope without leaving.

We must stop going in circles with more credentials and start asking: how can I get the kind of experience that Canadian or American employers actually recognize?

[18:11]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
That is such an important reframe. The emphasis on credentials is something so many of us inherited from the cultures we came from. But here — employers want to see what you have done in this context. And volunteering as a career strategy is something we are genuinely not culturally wired to see the value in. So thank you for spotlighting that.

Now let us bring in the employer side. You consult organizations through EQI Mindset, so you have seen this from both sides. Right now a lot of companies have diversity statements on their websites — or had them. They run DEI training, they celebrate heritage months, they launch employee resource groups. On paper, it looks like inclusion is happening. But the gap between what companies say and what immigrant professionals actually experience in the workplace is enormous. What are organizations getting wrong?

[20:01]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
You know, many of them have already taken those statements down. This is 2026. Most of what went up in 2020 has come back down. But those who are serious about building inclusive workplaces — they are still doing the work, even with regulatory pressure and shifting organizational priorities.

The real problem is performative inclusion versus structural inclusion. Overnight ERG launches. Statements with no infrastructure. Diversity metrics without accountability. That is not workplace inclusion. That is optics.

What I say to organizations is this: if your mindset is genuinely rooted in equity and inclusion, your job as a leader is not to choose how your employees experience belonging. It is to create the environment in which employees can choose for themselves how they feel belonging.

Here is a practical example. I personally identify as a woman, as a Black person, and as an immigrant. At different points in my career, what I needed most was different. When I first entered the workforce, what I needed was connection with other women. Not a Black ERG. Not an immigrant ERG. A women's group. But companies create one demographic box and expect everyone to fit neatly inside it. That is not inclusion — that is categorization.

Every single employee has a layer of their identity that matters most to them in a given season. Your role as an organizational leader is to create the psychological safety and the structural space for people to show up how they want to — and do their best work.

And then there is the myth that equity means sameness. "We treat everyone the same." Equity is not treating everyone the same. Equity is recognizing that everyone has different needs and creating systems so that each person can access what they need to thrive.

[25:10]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
The research I did for Thriving in Intersectionality really confirmed this. I started with a simple curiosity — is this just my experience? So I conducted interviews with immigrants from Africa, Europe, and Asia. And despite very different cultural backgrounds, the workplace challenges were strikingly similar. That told me: this is a systemic issue. It is not individual weakness. It is a structural gap in how corporate culture for newcomers has been designed.

[28:18]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
So what are the specific structural measures organizations can put in place to actually make a difference for immigrant professionals in the workplace?

[28:27]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
There are several, and they all come back to structure — not statements.

First: provide explicit support for navigating workplace norms. Every organization has unspoken rules. Things people assume everyone just knows. The goal of onboarding should not be to make people conform to the existing culture. The goal should be to help people find their place within it. What does communication look like here? How does career growth actually work? How do you have development conversations with your manager? Create a buddy system. Pair new employees with someone who can decode the unwritten culture for them. Because giving someone a job description and sending them off is not onboarding — it is abandonment.

Second: hold managers accountable for inclusion — not just results. Not every manager is a great coach, sponsor, or advocate. Most are not — because they were promoted based on performance, not on their ability to develop others. Organizations need to embed inclusive leadership into how managers are measured. Are we only tracking financial results? Or are we also tracking how well managers are investing in and championing their diverse team members — particularly those with multiple layers of underrepresented identity, like immigrant professionals?

Third: be explicit about career pathways. These are almost always assumed. For someone coming from a different country, job titles, levels, and career ladders may look completely different than what they experienced at home. Do not assume everyone understands the local framework. Be clear. Be direct. Show people what growth actually looks like in your organization.

Fourth: examine what your organization celebrates. If the only thing you publicly recognize is monetary performance, you are sending a cultural signal about who belongs and who does not. Do you acknowledge different ways people contribute? Do you make room for the value that diverse perspectives and lived experiences bring to your teams?

And fifth: measure what actually matters. Usage of your programs. Retention of your diverse employees. Career progression data by demographic. If you provide ten benefits that nobody uses because they do not solve actual problems — that is a waste. Listen to your people. Find out what one or two things matter most to them right now. Start there.

The summary: look at your structures. Your hiring process, your onboarding experience, your career development pathways, your day-to-day management culture. Symbolic inclusion is more damaging to your organization's reputation than doing nothing at all — because it signals that you see the problem and chose performance over action. What do your structures actually say about who belongs?

[33:07]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
I want to go back to something you shared in our pre-call that I found so powerful — the curb-cut effect. You talked about how wheelchair ramps were originally designed for people with disabilities as a disability inclusion and accessibility measure. But now everyone uses them — parents with strollers, people with shopping carts, delivery drivers. Designed for one group. Benefiting everyone. Can you connect that to what we have been discussing about designing inclusive workplaces?

[33:41]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
Yes — and this is really the heart of why workplace inclusion is not a special favor for one group. It is a systems upgrade that benefits everyone.

The wheelchair ramp was a recognition that our built environments were not designed for everyone. When we addressed that gap, the solution created access for far more people than anyone anticipated.

I experienced this directly. At a large company where I worked, we hosted a keynote speaker for Disability Inclusion Month. She used a wheelchair. And it was only in that moment that we discovered our main meeting room — in a company with hundreds of employees — was not wheelchair accessible. We literally had to carry her in. And the wake-up call was this: if someone we invited for a one-hour keynote could not get into the room, how much worse was it for any employee navigating that barrier every single day?

When you design for inclusion of the most underserved, you discover and close gaps that were invisible to everyone else.

I had a second experience with a colleague who had a hearing disability and relied on lip-reading. We moved a recurring meeting to a different building and offered a virtual option for those who could not attend in person — we thought we were being inclusive. But he was never joining. When I asked him about it, he pointed to his hearing aids and explained: he cannot do audio-only meetings. He reads lips. And I had known this person for years.

That conversation led to a complete review of how we conducted interviews and how we provided accommodations. Once we fixed the process for him, it benefited multiple other groups who needed similar accommodations. That is what designing for inclusion looks like in practice. It is not giving handouts to immigrant professionals or anyone else. It is checking your systems to ensure they are built for people from different walks of life.

When you design with intersectionality in mind — for employees who carry multiple underrepresented identities, like many immigrant professionals do — you close gaps you did not even know were costing you talent.

[38:37]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
That resonates deeply. In my own HR career, I saw us design initiative after initiative for employees — without ever actually involving the employees. The people who were supposed to be the beneficiaries had no voice in the design. And as you have said throughout this conversation: our faces are different, our needs are different. Equity is not one size fits all.

[39:05]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
Exactly. And I want to add one more thing: many organizations are afraid to acknowledge where the gaps are. They want to justify themselves — to say, "We are doing a lot, we are doing good." But you are missing the point.

When you acknowledge where you are falling short, the people who are experiencing those gaps feel seen. That acknowledgment alone matters. Nobody expects perfection. Building genuine inclusive workplaces is a journey — not a destination. But when you start from a place of honesty — this person's experience is different, their challenges are valid, let's understand them — you create an action plan. You make progress one step at a time.

The organizations that are actually moving forward are the ones willing to sit in the discomfort of knowing what is not working — and then asking: what is the one or two things our people need most right now? That is not failure. That is leadership.

[41:06]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
Here is my final question, Dr. Lola. You are clearly so deeply passionate about this work. What gives you hope? What makes you believe that workplaces can actually make these changes — and that immigrant professionals can truly thrive?

[41:25]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
We are in 2026. I will be honest — hope is hard to find right now. There is a lot going on. But every time I speak with a leader who is genuinely committed to doing the work, every time I connect with an ERG leader or internal advocate who is actively building inclusion from within — I am encouraged. We hear more about the rollbacks. There are still many organizations doing the real work quietly.

My hope comes from the conversations I get to have every day. A lot of people care. A lot of leaders want to do better — they just do not have the tools yet. That is where my work comes in: connecting workplace inclusion experts with organizations that have specific needs, and doing the consulting work that turns intention into structure.

And something bigger is also shifting. Even as some things feel like they are rolling back, we are seeing more people step into their power. More immigrant professionals are finding their voices. The next generation of workers is not staying silent. They want better workplaces, they hold leaders accountable, and they have the platforms to do it. Technology has made advocacy accessible in ways it never was before.

The companies that do not adapt to this reality will fall through the cracks. You cannot build a successful organization by focusing only on financial performance and ignoring the human experience inside it. The more I talk to people, the more I believe that hope is still there — we just have to keep building toward it together.

[43:25]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
There is one more story I would not forgive myself for not including. During my research on you, I came across something you shared about a speaking engagement — and I felt it perfectly captures everything we have been talking about today. The idea that workplace belonging at work does not always require a policy. Sometimes it just requires intention. Can you share that story?

[44:06]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
Oh, yes — thank you for remembering that. It is the perfect illustration.

I was invited to give a keynote at a company launch event in San Diego. This organization found me online. I did not know anyone there. It was a hybrid event — one room in San Diego, a second location streaming in. It ran into lunchtime, and lunch was provided.

I wrapped up my keynote and as I was walking around, I started to think — why do I smell jollof rice? That cannot be right. And then I found out — yes. They had ordered Nigerian food. There was not another Nigerian person at that entire event. They had ordered Nigerian food for their keynote speaker.

When I asked about it, one of the interns — because this event had been organized entirely by the intern team — said, "We just thought it might be nice. So we found a Nigerian restaurant." She had never even tried Nigerian food herself. But she made the effort.

In that moment, I felt genuinely seen. And then it became this beautiful, organic conversation — I was explaining the dishes to people, most of whom were tasting Nigerian food for the very first time. I felt celebrated. Connected. And all it took was someone thinking about who was walking into that room and asking: what would make them feel at home?

That is what belonging at work actually looks like. It is not always a new policy or a formal program. Sometimes it is a plate of jollof rice and the intention behind it. Inclusion does not have to be complicated. It has to be human.

[46:09]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
You felt instantly connected and included. That is the whole conversation in one story. Thank you so much, Dr. Lola. Before we let you go — how can our listeners find you and continue engaging with your work?

[46:48]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
I am most active on LinkedIn — that is my primary social platform. My website is DrLolaAdeyemo.com and it gives you entry into both sides of my work.

For immigrant professionals, ImmigrantsIncorporate.org is a free community space. We host monthly connection calls where immigrant professionals from across North America come together to share real resources and real experiences — very much in the spirit of what we have done here today. Come and join us.

If you are in HR, if you manage employee resource groups, if you are building or developing ERGs within your organization and you are looking for strategies to create more inclusive workplaces for your diverse employees — that is exactly what EQI Mindset does. I would love to connect.

[47:57]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
And one final question. What parting words would you leave for the immigrant professional who is listening to this episode right now?

[48:14]
DR. LOLA ADEYEMO:
You are smart. You are qualified. You deserve to take up space. Do not ever feel like you have to apologize for that. Take up all the space you need. We all need help along the way — and that is exactly why we are building these communities and resources for each other. Reach out. But know this: you are already smart, and you already belong in that room. Do not forget it.

[48:37]
OLAJUMOKE FATOKI:
There is no better way to close this episode. Thank you so much, Dr. Lola Adeyemo. And to every immigrant professional and every leader listening — I hope this conversation has given you something you can put to work. Please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Do not keep it to yourself. Until next time —

BOTH:
Keep thriving.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
• Dr. Lola Adeyemo's Website: DrLolaAdeyemo.com
• Immigrants in Corporate (Free Community): ImmigrantsIncorporate.org
• EQI Mindset (Workplace Inclusion Consulting): DrLolaAdeyemo.com
• Book: Thriving in Intersectionality by Dr. Lola Adeyemo
• Podcast: Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo

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Thrive Careers Podcast | Hosted by Olajumoke Fatoki
Career Coaching & HR Consulting for Immigrant Professionals,
Career Pivoters & Professional Women Navigating the Canadian Job Market
thriving in intersectionality | immigrant professionals in the workplace |
workplace inclusion strategies | overqualified immigrant Canada |
belonging at work | newcomer career advice Canada | EQI Mindset |
immigrants in corporate | Thrive Careers Podcast