Chidera Ezuma-Igwe
Rice University
Houston (29.7° N, 95.3° W)

featuring Jarvis Sam, Senior Director of Sourcing and Diversity Recruitment, Nike, Portland (45.5° N, 122.6° W)

Jarvis Sam currently serves as the senior director of sourcing and diversity recruitment at Nike. Jarvis majored in history, sports management, and policy studies and graduated from Rice University in 2013. After graduation, he began a career in consulting but quickly realized that it was not for him. He went into diversity and inclusion at Google and within a few years was recruited as a global diversity manager at Snap Inc. Jarvis defines his time at Snap Inc. as a formative time in his career that prepared him for his current position at Nike.

A significant theme throughout Jarvis’s career is making a change when your previous decision does not work. Often people tend to get comfortable and afraid to try new things, but Jarvis has been open to change, and these changes have led him to a senior position at one of the largest companies in the world. For his first three years at Rice, Jarvis was pre-law; he even took the LSAT. After some reflection, however, he realized that the clerical part of being an attorney was something he was not interested in. He decided to explore different fields that had his favorite parts about the law, like interpersonal communication and helping others. His coursework in history and policy explored social issues, investigated cultural phenomena, and offered a diverse array of knowledge about different cultural groups. His coursework in sports management helped him understand how businesses operate. These topics ended up particularly relevant in his current field of diversity recruitment and retention at Nike. In addition, his academic work and participation in extracurricular activities like speech and debate required him to develop the research and communication skills that are necessary for his current work. It was nice to see how you can connect your academic work in college to your career, regardless of whether you work in a directly related field.

After college, Jarvis went into consulting but immediately found that it was not for him, so he went off to see something that was a better fit. He was hired at Google where he began his journey in the diversity and inclusion space. He mentioned how influential his first manager at Google was and how he became his mentor. Jarvis turned this job into an opportunity to learn, connect, and expand his network and understanding of what attracts new hires. This experience took him to various parts of the globe including Switzerland and Brazil working on critical global diversity initiatives. His work resulted in him being recruited by Snap Inc. as a manager overseeing the companywide diversity effort. During his time at Snap, he saw the company grow from 400 to 3200 people; being in that environment gave him the opportunity to spearhead new initiatives at the growing company. Jarvis introduced the idea of having an entrepreneurial mindset at work, in the sense that as an employee you should advocate for your company as if it were your own business. At first, I was confused by the phrase, but by translating the same work ethic you would have if your company was your business, you can guarantee that you will produce good work. Jarvis has worked hard to make it to his current position after changes early on in his career path.

Jarvis has such a positive spirit; with every change in his career, he has continued to move forward and use past experiences to put himself in an advantageous position. I was genuinely inspired by Jarvis. I learned so much about having a successful career path and being open to change. I am currently not sure what my future holds, but this interview assured me that hard work, networking, and mentorship are valuable tools in whatever field that I may enter. As a Rice student, the default for people who do not immediately pursue a graduate degree, or career directly associated with their major, is consulting, but it was good to hear from someone who has a great career outside of those defaults. I realized I have a limited idea of the types of jobs that exist beyond the staples of doctors, lawyers, and professors. There are endless jobs that are rewarding and lucrative but do not have the same level of awareness. This conversation motivated me to search for careers in things I am interested in because there is a high possibility that these jobs exist and need people.

   I hope this conversation with Jarvis inspires people who are not sure about the next step in their lives and that it motivates them to work hard and find their career niche. Jarvis’s plan for his life changed drastically when he decided not to go into law and enter consulting, but he continued to push to find work that he is passionate about. The workplace advice Jarvis shared applies to all aspects of life, not just work, and I hope to use these skills in my own life.

Highlights from the Interview

You had three majors in college. How did that come about?

I studied history and public policy and sports management. I delved into the history program very early in my tenure, actually. I knew very quickly I wanted to be a history major, as at the time I was pretty set on going to law school. I took a ton of the history seminar courses, went through the process of writing an honors thesis. Then, I added the public policy major. I did a semester at University of Hawaii my sophomore year instead of going abroad. While I was there, I took a couple of classes in Hawaiian history and did some course work in the law and justice space. I studied race law and intersectionality in the law. It aligned really well and earned me transfer credit for the public policy major. I was always involved in speech and debate.

Then, in my junior year, I was working over in athletics, tutoring student athletes, and really enjoyed that experience. One day some of the guys and some of the girls on the tennis team were like, “Hey, you should take some of the classes with us.” So I took a couple of introductory sport management courses and fell in love. Just learning about the sports business, and the provocative nature of sports, and how it can be leveraged in culture was really interesting to me. So I picked up that major, and it’s been incredibly useful.

What skills did each major provide you?

When we think through the history major, it is not the most applicable from a coursework perspective. However, the skills I learned about verbal and written communication and crafting an effective argument and leveraging support of research from primary and secondary source materials is certainly something that I use everyday in my career. On the public policy side, working in the diversity and inclusive space, and having a strong understanding of how marginalized groups have been impacted in this country and then abroad— that is really the crux of what I do in framing out the moral vision and ethical case for diversity programs. And then finally my sports management degree was pretty useless in the early parts of my career, but as fate would have it, I ended up working at Nike, so it’s now very useful. 

Everyone’s family, community, and life circumstances create an initial role from them in society. What was expected of you? Did you adhere to it or stray from it, and how does your family feel?

That’s a good question. It was kind of a mixed bag for me. Myself and my siblings are first generation college students in my family, then in our extended family we’re the only three out of about twenty-five cousins to go to college today, so I would say familial expectations at the extended level was, you know, you either learn something vocationally and pursue that or try to figure out what the next step in your business is. My mom worked in education and my dad drove the bus for METRO in Houston. My brother went to college full scholarship, my sister did the same thing—so from them there was a huge amount of pressure to do well and to do better than what they had. When I look at socioeconomic capabilities, I did not grow up rich. I did not even grow up middle class. My mom, as a single parent, put us all through early, primary, secondary education. So for me that established an expectation of this new conversation about being a black male in America. I always knew what that meant and what I needed to do to be impactful.

When did you envision yourself as the current role you are now?

I was going to be a lawyer throughout my first three years at Rice. I’d done everything leading up to it, the pre-law course work, sat for the LSAT and all that jazz. And then between junior and senior year when I took my internship opportunity, I landed an internship with Deloitte and was pretty set on going into consulting—because that’s what Rice tells you to do if you’re not going to medical school—and decided to do that, and that was one of the biggest errors and greatest things that I could have done in life. I was at Deloitte a grand total of three months as an intern and six months as a full-time employee. I quit. Because it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Right at the same time when I was working in the oil and gas industry, I got a call from Google to come work in HR to do team and talent work. They described it to be a strategic role. When I got there and ended up being a recruiter, I started to understand the strategy behind talent acquisition and how companies can leverage their brand to hire great people.

Why did you decide not to be pre-law? I’m currently in that boat, I’m like, “Am I really pre-law?” And I’d like to know about that decision process.

I figured out that I enjoyed a lot of the more tangible elements of what you think an attorney does, and I hated all of the actual attributes of what an attorney does. So, coming from speech and debate, I loved crafting logical arguments. I really enjoyed public speaking, giving presentations in front of large audiences, and framing context and content. I do not enjoy reading contracts. I don’t enjoy, you know, doing a lot of the more commercial activities that an attorney actually does—paper pushing, billing clients—I didn’t enjoy that. So for me, it was how can I look for a field that can leverage the skill set that I actually want to use without forcing me to do the other. And that’s when I decided I wasn’t pre-law. 

Plus, the cost is like $250,000 for three years. That’s a ton of money to invest for a career you actually don’t want to do. I would give this advice: if you do not know for sure that you want to be a lawyer, and you are not one hundred percent confident in it, do not do it, at least not right away. There’s a big movement now where people are going back to law school a little bit later, similar to MBA programs. They’re getting a year or two of work experience.

Do you have someone who has acted as a mentor and has helped cultivate your interests? 

A ton of people. My mother, obviously a big one. My brother, on the family side. But then on the Rice side, David Worth, the director of forensics, my old debate coach. He was a huge mentor for me; he was one of the biggest advocates who was like, “Figure out what it is you want to do in life and what you think being a lawyer is that gets you jazzed up, and then let’s do a survey of other careers that get you there.” He remains a very strong mentor for me.

I think the most beautiful part of mentorship is that you grow most through mentoring others and then mentoring laterally. I think people lose sight of that. In my current role, I manage a team of twenty, but I’m the youngest person on the team. So I’m managing people who are forty, people who are thirty-eight, one of my direct reports is forty-five. Mentoring people who are the same level as me. So I think it’s getting out of the mindset that mentorship has to be an older person who is in a big senior role.

What led you to your current position, and what does your position entail?

I will answer it in reverse order. My current position is the senior director of diversity recruiting and talent sourcing at Nike. What that means is that my team’s mission is to develop and own the integrated strategy for how to accelerate the flow of diverse talent at Nike across all levels, all geographies, and all businesses. So when we think about engagement of retail employees, working in the Nike stores, I work in partnership with that team to build out a diversity strategy. When we think about collegiate engagement for internships, I work with that team to build out their strategy. And then I directly own and manage our executive leadership strategy for diverse talent. 

I left Google after two and a half years when I went to Snapchat in LA, where I was for two and a half years as their head of diversity and inclusion. Did some really exciting work, loved loved loved working at Snapchat. Saw the company grow from about 400 to 3,200 by the time I left. Right around the time that I had given the consideration to exploring opportunities outside, I had received an offer from Nike and Disney right at the same time, and that ultimately is what led me to Nike—to move out of LA to Portland.

What are some misconceptions you had about your job?

I think that people will often think that because a company is big and makes a ton of money that they have their whole life together, and they’re going to be in a fast-moving, high-function space. And that may be true on a lot of cases, but I think two big things that stood out for me from Google and Nike—who are recognized as very powerful brands in the industry—is they still have challenges that they encounter. Mainly in terms of people, processes, and taking a clear metrics-driven approach to understand how to basically manage and develop.

What skills do you find yourself utilizing most?

It’s mostly verbal and written communication. Understanding how to leverage that interpersonally, interculturally, and cross-culturally. I had taken a business communication class on how to communicate cross-culturally, interculturally. And turns out it was one of the most important classes I could have ever taken. It took the body of work that I do right now—I’m there being an overseer for processes, Boston for Converse, LA for Nike, Jordan for Nike Chicago. But also for Amsterdam, Germany, in Spain, in Italy, parts of South America. So understanding, as you develop global strategy, how to effectively communicate interculturally, especially when you are doing big business in greater China—which is a deeply collectivist culture, obviously not rooted in the individualistic nature of capitalism. And again, it’s the tie-in with the history major, because I spent a good amount of time studying Chinese history. 

Tell me about your favorite project.

I would say the project that I’m most excited to have worked on at Nike so far is this: I built a program for community college students, which is aimed at getting more community college students involved in products. For a Nike product, it’s footwear and apparel. So when you take a look at that industry overall and the industry that we play—only thirty black footwear designers in the whole industry. So a huge deficit in what we could be doing, and so I made a program that’s starting in January that’s going to bring twelve community college students—all diverse—from the Los Angeles area to Nike to work as footwear graphic designers and apparel designers for the company. Attempting to shift strategic programs of the product—as well as change the supply side of the house—to exhibit that we are offering opportunity for diverse talent.

Could you describe the dynamics on a team that works on these kinds of projects in regard to the structural organization—or important characteristics that are used to run a good team?

I think the ability to run a team is obviously uniquely tied to effective management and leadership. There are three key qualities that are often leveraged. Number one is transparency and authenticity. People just want to know that you’re keeping it real with them and offering effective visibility into what you’re working on, how they’re being evaluated, and how that’s serving the larger business. I think that’s critical. Number two, directly in line with that, is tying your work to the business goal every single time. You’ll hear people talk about this mantra nowadays of living your life—no matter what role you’re in at a company—as an entrepreneur. I kind of agree with that, kind of don’t. Because if I was a founder of a company, I’d be far wealthier than what you all pay me on salary. So I do not always live life as a founder and entrepreneur. What I can do, though, is work as an advocate and active leader of my business to advocate for my people and advocate for my organization and for my leadership. And so there’s a final thing from there that I think is accountability—both on your team and on you as a leader. For me, accountability is really being a kind leader. I just got off a one-on-one call about an hour ago, and I had to give one of my team members pretty direct feedback.  But I know he appreciated it as he wants to grow his career and establish better client relationships over time.

How are science and technology reshaping how you work?

I think as more and more companies take a look at what their digital capabilities and technological offerings are, they begin to understand that the biggest drivers for growth, moving forward, are how effective can you be at leveraging technology and digital capabilities to drive revenue. The challenge, though, for any company doing that is that in the diversity and inclusion space, the black community and the Latino community, don’t have a ton of access to digital capabilities, whether in the form of a cell phone or laptop. So I would caution them that it’s fine to build out these capabilities that drive growth and revenue but to recognize that the digital divide is real and singlehandedly putting those communities out of using their product.

What advice would you give a student interested in your field?

As a student, enjoy yourself in undergrad. Take challenges, take risks, go global when opportunities present themselves, especially as a student at Rice—take advantage of all the global opportunities that you have. If they are presenting an opportunity to go to Spain, to go to Turkey, take full advantage of those because that global mindset is really going to be impactful. The number two thing is take coursework in communication. Ninety-nine percent of the reason that I’ve been able to do what I’ve done in the five years since I graduated Rice is because I was doing speech and debate, and I can talk myself into or out of most things. I think students graduating—especially students studying STEM education—don’t see the value in public speaking coursework, but it’s the best thing that they can do. And I think the final piece is do not be… don’t fear quitting and saying no. When I made the decision to quit Deloitte after six months, I’d started with six other Rice students, and they were all like, “Oh, what are you doing? You know you were supposed to be here at least two years.” And I was like, “No, that is a waste of another year and a half of my life.” I would much rather quit now, quit early to pursue the best fit for me.

(Interview excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability and approved by the interviewee.)