HWS News
15 September 2020 McGowan '21 Joins Credit Suisse
After two consecutive summers interning with Credit Suisse, Garrett McGowan '21 has accepted an offer at the global investment bank, wealth management and financial services firm.
In Credit Suisse's Investment Banking Financial Institutions Group based in New York City, the economics and mathematics double-major will work in a range of areas, from mergers and acquisitions to insurance to asset management, following his 2021 graduation.
McGowan came to HWS intending to focus on economics before realizing how complementary math would be, not only for its applied usage but for the abstract, outside the box skills it develops. "I was always kind of interested in finance and knew that was where economics would come in, but I figured a dual major would be a good differentiating factor. Math offers a lot of critical thinking, a lot of creative problem solving, which is good experience to gain," he says.
In Associate Professor of Economics Evren Damar's finance-focused seminar, Current Issues in Macroeconomics, McGowan studied the financial regulation governing banks, insurance companies and hedge funds, learning how these institutions in general work and why they're so important to how our economy functions. "It was really helpful to understand how these companies operate."
Since his first year at HWS, McGowan has seen those operations from the inside as well. Following a summer internship with Cerberus, a private equity firm in New York, McGowan participated in the Colleges' New York City Finance Experience, which introduced him to a broad range of career paths within the finance industry, as well as to recent graduates working at Credit Suisse. Connecting with Zachary Sternbach '20, Kevin Goltz '19, Theresa Lohr '18 and Sean Bright '17, all Credit Suisse employees, helped McGowan understand the central functions and culture of the company, where Chair of the HWS Board of Trustees Craig Stine '81, P'17 served as Executive Vice Chairman of the Global Financial Institutions Group for nearly a decade before recently joining Barclays.
"The bank is great to work for," McGowan says. "There's a great culture and we have the track record of HWS succeeding at Credit Suisse. And networking with Career Services as a first-year put me on their radar."
Now, as he prepares to start a full-time position with Credit Suisse, McGowan hopes to help other students find their own path in the industry by offering his advice on resume writing, the interview process and his experience as an intern. "I remember my sophomore year, trying to get into the bank; I was networking a lot, talking to people in the bank, getting insight into their experience," McGowan says. "Whatever I can do now, I'm happy to help out."
A goalie on the Hobart hockey team, McGowan is a member of the HWS Finance Society.
