Biotech Beat: From the Military to Drug Compound Management with Robotic Assistance

Nick Vaquera is a City College of San Francisco (CCSF) alum, working at Eikon Therapeutics Theraputics in Drug Discovery. When asked, he says that he sees entry level lab research assistants making $65K to $70K with hardly any experience. Nick has also seen salaries in the drug discovery lab field go as high as $150,000 for individual contributors, with managers being a different salary structure. Sound good?  Nick feels that he was really fortunate to find his role, and he really enjoys doing it. He had worked pulling wire as an electrician, and then as a liquor distributor in the warehouse at night. After 9/11/2001, he enlisted in the Navy where he assembled and loaded bombs for part of his job. Although he knew that the military was not going to be his life-time career, his training made him realize he is a creature of habit.  After getting out of the military, and a brief stint at AT&T, he accessed his GI Bill, which paid for tuition, books and a stipend to live on. His experience in Bridge to Bioscience (CCSF) led him to not only an internship, but also a job at the Gladstone Institutes.  In his Eikon Therapeutics job he does essentially the the same thing over and over (testing compounds for specific activities, with robotic assistance), and that fits his nature. But at the same time, there is vertical movement within the company so he does not feel stuck in his position. He is a firm believer that you just need to overcome any fears, ask questions, do the work, and you will make your opportunity. He also really believes that MATH and COMPUTERS are key to success in biotech.

He also mentioned that he gets a lunch subsidy at work every day, plenty of food, health and dental benefits, and a 401K! He hopes that Eikon Therapeutics is his life-time career company, although he acknowledges that the biotech field is very fluid and things change rapidly.

Learn more about Nick's path in biotech community!

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