Writing a thread on onboarding here, because I don't want to write it in the other place.
Context:
Good engineer onboarding *is* DEI. Teams that have great onboarding, tend to be more diverse and inclusive. Teams that have poor onboarding, tend to be more homogeneous and less diverse.
That's because poor onboarding makes life harder for junior employees and remote employees. Underrepresented groups benefit disproportionately from remote work options. Junior employees are a more diverse group.
Poor onboarding leads to more "beginner questions" for longer. Underrepresented groups experience higher social threat. So if 3 employees start working at Tech Corp on the same day, and they are:
* A white man
* A white woman
* A Black man
And they all have the same beginner questions 6 months after their start date, then the Black man and white woman are more likely to be perceived as "slow ramp up" people, and face career consequences as a result.
Imposter syndrome isn't real. Imposter phenomenon is very real.
Imposter phenomenon is the combination of two things:
1) the belief that I know less things than others around me.
2) the belief that if this is found out, that I will experience harm from it.
In short, it's about psychological safety. It's a rational response based on the lived experience of the person feeling it, and their observation of how others are treated, it's not a shortcoming of the person experiencing it.
@mekkaokereke I'm curious by what you mean by "Imposter syndrome isn't real" ?
Do you mean it's a feeling that isn't based on reality?
Or it just never exists - anyone in a psychologically-safe environment can't feel like an imposter?
(Because I read it as the second and while I wholeheartedly support your push for us to all build better environments and remove "Imposter phenomenon" I think it would be a mistake to suggests feeling are always rooted in observed reality)
@beardymcnerd @mekkaokereke I read the point as being that it's not a disorder but a rational response to knowing one will be treated in a discriminatory way for being seen as not knowing something.
So many things labeled disorders are rational responses in the same way, and framing them as a disorder is based in denial of the underlying injustice.
Impostor Phenomenon was first described by Dr. Pauline Rose Clance back in the 1970s. She described the very real feelings of extremely high performing women in academia and medicine, who were convinced that they were frauds that would soon be found out soon.
Digging into why they felt that way, revealed that many had upbringings where either:
A) They were frequently told that they were inately smart
B) They had a male sibling that they were constantly told was the smart one
@mekkaokereke Thank you!
That's encouraged me to go and read the paper. It's very "of it's time", but interesting and enlightening.
It does seem to align with what I mostly see as the modern conception: of feelings of inadequacy _despite_ receiving praise and honours in their career.
Appreciate you taking the time to reply!
mekka okereke 
Simon Holness
Cassandrich