We’ve all been there before, aimlessly staring at our resume and thinking to ourselves, "What can I throw on here to make myself standout?”
How about four-time Olympian and Olympic finalist?
Very few can claim such accomplishments, and for Lowe’s senior financial analyst Vikas Gowda, his illustrious athletic career helped shape who he is and how he got to Lowe’s.
Gowda was born in India and at the age of five his family moved to Maryland. It was there where his passion for sports and dreams of competing in the Olympics would grow.
“When I was a kid, my brother and I would always watch the Olympics,” he said. “We were always competing in something and I always kept it in the back of my mind that I wanted to make it to the Olympics.”
Gowda found his calling as a track and field athlete, excelling at the discus and shot-put. His success in those events helped him earn a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina as well as a chance to represent his home country at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece.
“To get to that level and finally achieve it was surreal,” he said. “As a 10-year-old you always dream of it and when it became a reality you just have to pinch yourself.”
But that was just the beginning for Gowda.
As a senior at UNC, Gowda capped his collegiate career by winning the 2006 NCAA National Championship in the discus event with a throw of 60.55 meters.
Shortly after graduating with a degree in mathematics, Gowda moved to Arizona to fully pursue a professional career as a discus athlete.
“After I moved to Arizona, I started to perform better and everything slowly improved,” he said. “I worked my way into a top ten ranking in the world. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.”
Gowda represented India in three more Olympic games and went on to qualify for the finals in 2012, where he finished in 8th place. He has been heralded as India’s greatest discus thrower and holds the national record with a throw of 66.28 meters. Gowda also earned gold medals in the 2013 and 2015 Asian games as well as in the 2014 Commonwealth games.
Once he retired from the sport, Gowda moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where he enrolled in an MBA program at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
“When I was an athlete, I was so focused on becoming a better athlete,” he said. “But that desire and priorities didn’t change after I retired. I still want to succeed at something.”
It was during his MBA program that Gowda attended a career fair and connected with Lowe’s. A few months later he was offered the senior financial analyst position and started shortly after graduating.
“After retirement a lot of athletes struggle with ‘What do I do now?’ I went through the same thing. Making the decision to move to Charlotte to get my MBA helped my focus and channel that into something else. I am now channeling that drive and focus into my job at Lowe’s.”
With that ambition and a new set of objectives, Gowda is now using the skills he developed as a world-class discus thrower and applying them in his new line of work.
Because as any athlete knows, it’s all about helping the team.
“I am just trying to learn as quickly as I can so I can contribute, that’s what I am focusing on,” he said. “I can’t channel my competitive mindset into sports anymore, so I am channeling it into my new career.”
