Novartis Pharmaceuticals – “Work some place else, you will live longer.”

Pros

Free Starbucks coffee, good benefits.

Cons

There has been a decision to 'right' source the clinical programming. That translates into a forcing out of senior programming talent and the expectation that the remaining staff will train the over seas programmers. Behind this is the assumption that programmers are commodities which can be replaced with cheaper units at no loss. The majority of the management of the programming staff are ex-statisticians with the attitude that the only reason anyone would program is because they couldn't make the grade as a statistician. Since they had programmed to do homework assignments in school they believe that they understand the issues inherent in clinical programming and any attempts to inject professional concepts of reuseability and standards are unnecessary and a waste of resources. 'Just program and shut up'

Advice to Senior Management

Your company is hostage to middle management