Bryant Garnes

B.S., double major: Business Management and Computer Information Systems, 2004
Analyst, Equity Capital Markets
Wachovia Securities
New York City, NY

How does someone get such an impressive job — working in the finance industry on Park Avenue in Manhattan — at the age of 24?

Bryant Garnes is living the life, and he can tell you how he got there in three words: Guilford College internship.

Of course, that’s typically modest of him. Yes, he served an internship with Wachovia Securities through the college, and yes, immediately after that internship Wachovia offered him a job. Yes also that Wachovia then relocated him to Manhattan very quickly. But let’s be serious: You don’t get the job, much less the promotion to the big time, without being very talented.

Bryant Garnes definitely is talented. His life right now is, he admits, “great, exciting and expensive.” How did he find his Murray Hill (Manhattan) apartment? Wachovia provided a realtor who found it for him. Wachovia moved him to the city. Wachovia did this, Wachovia did that. Obviously, Bryant is able to live and work where he does because Wachovia values him a great deal. And Bryant credits Guilford College with increasing his value.

“Wachovia works in small teams,” he says, “and Guilford College is where I became aware of how to do that successfully. I learned to value what others were thinking and doing … and I learned how to incorporate their efforts into the project.”

Teamwork in the corporate world is important, but so is being ready for the big time. Bryant says: “I made several presentations to the Guilford College Board of Trustees. That experience plus my classes at Guilford prepared me for working at just about any level. Thanks to the college, I had the tools and the confidence to use them.”

Bryant was a student at Guilford College when the country was attacked on 9/11, and he says the reactions of professors, staff and students were different from the norm. “The general position at Guilford was educational and reflective,” he says. “The faculty basically told us, ‘Let’s try to understand the people who have done this.’ It was an opportunity for personal and intellectual growth.”

He adds: “The teachings of the people at Guilford — and the Quaker traditions of the institution itself — have certainly made me more aware of world events.”

Bryant is still learning about the world, he says, and he’ll likely never stop doing so. He says that the pivotal internship — that time spent with Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C. — was especially helpful in that it taught him about many different kinds of securities … and about the world of finance in general.

“That internship exposed me to mergers and acquisitions, public equity offerings, private equity and debt offering assignments for healthcare clients,” he says. Over dinner in a very nice restaurant in midtown Manhattan, he’s explains that he is working with various capital markets and economies on a global level: “I’m assessing the capital needs of public and private companies, identifying underwriting opportunities and structuring equity offerings for clients.” Not only does he know what all those words mean, he also truly enjoys the work.

“The best thing about this job,” he says, “is that it provides so many different opportunities to go forward.” That means his future has options galore, and he likes it that way. “I love options, and Guilford College is the place for that — it’s an environment where students can explore and check out all of their interests, and they can do that with tremendous guidance.”

His advice to high school students follows the same theme: “Don’t pick a college because you know what you want to do and you think that school does it. Pick a college that will guide you to success in any arena, a school that will enable you to explore all kinds of options for your life. That’s what Guilford did for me.”