Biotech Beat: It's Not How You Start, it's How You Finish!

In this January, 2025 episode of the Biotech Beat podcast you’ll meet Mike, who is an Austin Community College (ACC) alum and now works at XBiotech in Austin, TX. Mike had almost finished his entire linguistics degree while still in high school when he took a required science class and got to listen to a biotech faculty member describe their field. The description made him realize that biotech covered almost everything about science that he enjoyed! He decided that a biotech degree would be more likely to get him a job than linguistics, so he "switched lanes at the last minute" and never looked back.

Mike describes XBiotech as very self-contained, doing almost everything in-house, which is not always the way a biotech company will run. XBiotech manufactures antibodies derived from donors whose antibodies have been screened for the appropriate therapeutic characteristics such as anti-inflammatory properties. Mike is on the downstream processes as a Manufacturing Associate Level 3, his job involves the downstream processes--bringing a batch of antibodies from growth to purification. He performs important tasks such as buffer testing for pH and conductivity and also equipment set up to assure proper handling of the product--Mike feels that his hands-on experience at the Bioscience Incubator at Austin Community College helped prepare him to succeed. In addition, given the stringent regulations in his field, he was very carefully mentored when he began his new job, which helped him gain confidence for when he began to work on his own.

Mike said the salary range for his level is about $50,000 to $70,000 in Austin. XBiotech has room to advance both within a department (he started as a Level One Manufacturing Associate) and even sometimes change departments--Mike already has diverse job responsibilities which keep him busy!

Mike attended high school in Washington State where he was part of the Running Start program--this program allowed him to start taking community college classes in linguistics during his junior year of high school, but he did not finish his degree at that time. He then took about 10 years off from education and worked a variety of jobs before starting school again at ACC, which was where he changed his focus and earned a degree in biotech. It took him four years to get his two-year degree, with time and money constraints he juggled jobs and classes until he made it through. Mike credits the great industry connections of the faculty at ACC with helping prepare him for his career and also for getting him the chance to work at XBiotech and essentially double his previous salary at Target, where he had been working while in school.

His advice? Get your hands on biotech equipment and develop expertise--hands-on skills will catch the eye of a biotech company because it means you already have the knowledge you would need for the job!

Biotech Beat podcast, hosted by Peter Kazarinoff, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Advanced Technological Education (JATE)

Tune in on Spotify,  iHeart Radio, or Apple Podcasts for more of Mike's story and why staying open to change, even at the last minute, can be a good thing.

Funded by NSF grant  Alumni and Industry Engagement ATE project (DUE 2202011)