Jessica Carnes has been working as Operations Associate for Giesting Financial since March of 2020. She handles a variety of duties. When working the front desk at the Columbus, Indiana location, she makes appointments, sends reminders, greets clients and sets them up in the conference room with everything they need. “I love making clients feel comfortable from the moment they come in,” she says. Jessica also handles a large volume of paperwork for both the Columbus and Batesville locations, including service requests and all the forms needed to open new accounts.
Prior to joining Giesting, Jessica was assistant manager for Barnes & Noble College bookstore at IUPUC (Indiana University Purdue University Columbus). While there, she ran the textbook department and oversaw all customer service.
Working in business administration and customer service is a departure from Jessica’s original career path. She graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science in psychology, and spent a year at her first job as a caseworker in social services helping oversee children who were taken away from their parents during supervised two-hour family visits. It was difficult to deal with the trauma the children underwent, and she decided to leave the field.
Jessica says, “I still use my psychology degree in every part of my life, including here at Giesting Financial, where I try to anticipate clients’ needs and wants. I really enjoy the financial services industry in terms of helping people feel secure with their finances.”
Born and raised in Columbus, Jessica has a brother, a half-brother and a half-sister, all of whom she loves deeply. For extracurricular activities after school, when she focused on jazz dance when younger, but she switched to soccer her freshman year in high school which she played until a chronic knee condition sidelined her.
She jokes, “Now I’m 31 years old but feel like an old lady because my hobby is staying home and crocheting. There are blankets everywhere,” she jokes. Nearly every family member has received one of Jessica’s crocheted blankets as a gift. Recently she took up cross-stitch, and her father has the Serenity Prayer she cross-stitched and framed for his birthday hanging on his wall.
Jessica met her husband, Ryan, in September of 2010 on eHarmony. “We are an online dating success story,” she says.
By October of 2010 they moved in together, in December they were engaged, and in August of 2011, they were married.
Jessica and Ryan love hanging out and spending time together. They often invite siblings and parents over for game nights, and they enjoy watching the same types of movies together: action films. “No rom-coms for me,” Jessica laughs. They both share a passion for Disney World. Ryan has been almost 30 times and Jessica has been three times. “I also love Universal Studios, because I am a huge Harry Potter fan.” The couple’s guest bedroom / computer room is filled with Disney items—including crocheted items, of course.
To round out the happy family, Jessica and Ryan have two dogs and a cat. Minx, the tabby cat, was obtained as one of a litter of kittens from Jessica’s sister in 2015. Maverick was their first dog. “After a lot of unsuccessful begging on my part, Ryan finally let me adopt him—after he backed into my car and dented it (he owed me). Maverick had basically been tied outside by the neighbor with a sign that said ‘free dog.’ We recently had him DNA tested and found out he is part Yorkie and part Great Pyrenees. Not sure how that happened!” Mason is the most recent addition—he is a full-blooded Chihuahua.