Solid "big" company - Anonymous employee Merck Employee Review

4.0
Jun 11, 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- opportunities to work with some very bright and motivated people - scientific excellence and solid products - lots of resources provided you are on a high-priority project

Cons

- still some "dead wood" hanging around and not pulling weight; lives in the glory days - very process-oriented which can get in the way of rapid decision-making and innovation - career development often times capricious

Explore other reviews about Merck

5.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Excellent company to work with.

Cons

No cons encountered so far

4.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits like medical/dentist/vision, pension, stock option, 401k match. Co workers are excellent, pretty good on site symposiums, lot of diversity clubs/activities. Innovation is extremely welcomed. Diversity in research portfolio. AI/ML is heavily invested to make databases more efficient.

Cons

Micro managing, especially within the biologics department, potentially others. Promotions are limited, and pay bump is poor. Company invests too much in buying companies rather than keeping talent - lay offs let go of great talented people. Merck is afraid of investing into exploratory biology and doesn’t take risk - they even admit they would rather see other companies clinical data or R&D data rather than taking a risk. Although it’s slow going in building new software, current databases are slow and needs much improvement. Extremely poor work/life balance.

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