EY Alumni Spotlight: Shivam Kishore — EY Vancouver, 2012-20

We recently caught up with alum Shivam Kishore to talk about his thoughts on why Vancouver is growing as a tech ecosystem, plus how teaching mindfulness and yoga have informed his career journey.

Technology does what it’s designed to do. It can be a force for good, especially the ability to collaborate while staying home. Everyone adapted to the new way of working, with technology acting as an enabler. For the longest time we had the mindset that technology drives work, but now we’re realizing it’s just an enabler. We choose whether we want technology to be a force for good or bad.

Human nature is so variable. Some people have completely thrived in the virtual environment, but there are certain people who thrive in the physical environment. Women have been more impacted by lockdowns — the legacy mindset of what a women’s role is has been reinforced and they’ve had to do double duty. That takes a mental toll.

The conversation needs to be not what’s better for you but what people say is better for them. As organizations, we must be in a space to ask our people what they need to be their best, to create something magical. Organizations benefit from their employees’ wellbeing; it’s directly tied to the bottom line. We must ask ourselves if we have the will to engage in these conversations. I’m a big proponent of meeting people where they are.

As a technology consultant, what drew you to Vancouver? How does the city rate compared to other global markets, such as Silicon Valley, in terms of being a hub for tech companies? Has that impacted the high cost of living in the city?

Vancouver continues to grow as technology ecosystem. The quality and availability of its talent pool is one of the best in Canada. The city is at the top for quality of life and it’s very competitive in terms of operational cost. Global companies want to come here. Venture capital markets have grown to the point where Vancouver has the highest number in North America over the last five years.

Something else I love about Vancouver is its values-driven ecosystem. Strong impact pieces come out of this market because of its mindset of balanced, diversified, equitable innovation. That’s a unique value proposition and attractive to technology companies. This does bring challenges, of course. The increase in innovation drives wages higher and other sectors can’t keep pace, so there is some economic polarization.

The question is, how can we help other sectors get up to speed? That’s a conversation that will take our collective consciousness to address, together with the city and the province. Housing availability is critical.

It was a matter of chance, how I landed in Vancouver. I was fortunate to be sponsored by Simon Fraser University, which allowed me to move here from South Africa. My professor back in South Africa had encouraged me to apply to Canadian universities for better growth opportunities, and without the scholarship from SFU, I would not have been where I am today.

I believe in the potential of what Vancouver can be. It’s a great city for minorities, it’s in the forefront of climate and Indigenous issues. I find that truly inspirational.

How did your experience at EY shape your subsequent career? Are there any individuals in particular who helped you learn and grow?

When I joined EY I didn’t even really know what it was. At the time I was working at the UN, a very cool gig the likes of which I hadn’t experienced before. As with all things in life, in hindsight you appreciate everything more.

The biggest thing for me is whatever I do I want to do it well. That’s helped foster relationships with both clients and EY teams, and it’s carried on into my current work environment.

I’m a firm believer that a village shapes the individual, and there were many people who helped shape me at EY. I had my own thoughts and philosophies that were aligned with EY’s — equity, ESG, CSR, mindfulness, showing up to work without that corporate front and being your authentic self at work.

The EY brand carries a lot of weight. It’s been instrumental in opening doors for me and lends credibility before I even have the chance to prove what I can do. For example, I’m doing my Master’s at Harvard. It was an eight-month application process, and the person evaluating me also had a background at EY 20 years ago, so they knew the calibre of people who EY hires. Being an EY alum is almost like graduating from university — it’s not necessarily a demonstration of your intelligence, but it shows you have a work ethos and can collaborate.

I’ll give a shout-out to Kevin Eck, a wonderful human being who valued everyone being themselves at work, and my former teammates (now close friends), Mo Mostafaei and Raymond Tang, who made spending those 55-hour work weeks much more enjoyable

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As a teacher of mindfulness and a practitioner of yoga, do you find it’s helpful in maintaining perspective in your work and travels?

Yes, mindfulness 100% defines how I see the world, who I am and what I do. We’re all a product of our environments — who we grew up with, where we grew up — and we have active choices if we choose to take them. We can all take conscious choices for how to shape our futures.

That’s a very important part of how I want to share those values with the world. Quite often I’ll start meetings with breathing exercises for the group. Again, it’s important to meet people where they are. Everyone has their own backgrounds and stresses that you might not be aware of. Being conscious of that can help people walk away feeling wholesome and better. Mindfulness is a personal journey. I can only share ideas of what a state of mind could be in your mindfulness journey.

We often tend to think that just because something has been done in a particular way for a long time it should always be done that way. But mindfulness helps me understand that my staff and mentees shouldn’t necessarily still do those things the same way. That’s how we can harness people’s intelligence. We want to hire the best and the brightest to disrupt and not always do things the way they’ve always been done. It makes the environment of working with people a lot healthier.

Where organizations need to play catchup is ensuring it’s not the norm to constantly expect people to work 70 hours a week. Leaders should come forward to work with their people so everyone can work in harmony.

What advice would you give your younger self?

A lot of my decisions have come from intent and consciousness from a young age. Growing up in a harsher environment forces you to adapt and keep an open mind. Don’t be fixated on how career success is defined — those things may or may not intersect with your definition of contentment and happiness.

That’s one thing I try to emphasize when I talk to people and when I address universities. There’s an increasing population of young people who don’t place their main values on creature comforts. Otherwise, we risk falling into the same trap of doing things as they’ve always been done.