Merck Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Former Employee – worked at Merck full-time for more than a year

Pros – People are generally nice, very long and extensive orientation, informative and instructed well, pay and benefits are very good, hours and work schedule can be good .

Cons – Moving to 12 hour shifts while undermanned, specific department training is lacking, new employees are often left to sink or swim.

Advice to Senior Management – Improve specific training for new management employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merck full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – There are a lot of hard working people who focus on the customers

Cons – Leadership makes poor decisions and driving the company into the ground

Advice to Senior Management – You forgot the company motto of putting patients first. You care more about Wall Street.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merck as an intern for less than a year

Pros – The people are diverse, intelligent and great to work with. The work is challenging and meaningful rather than paper pushing. For my internship, I was given a real project that needed to be completed for the company and that had a real impact. They also housed me for the summer, provided transportation options to the site, and planned on-site tours to see different departments and what they do.

Cons – Can be high stress because of time deadlines, few full-time positions for new-hires after completing the internship and its locations are all on the East Coast, so relocation anywhere else isn't possible. Also, they house you in Philadelphia, so you commute 3 hours every day using public transportation.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merck full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Employees for the most part are intelligent, and driven to do a good job.

Cons – Company makes constant changes to their systems and procedures. People are overworked, they don’t operate efficiently in the Manufacturing Division.

Advice to Senior Management – Management should assist employees in establishing reasonable work load and help with career development.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Merck as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Comprehensive internship program that provided necessary training in the pharmaceutical industry. Great work environment, beautiful campus and enjoyable colleagues.

Cons – Hard to know what other areas of research are available at the facility.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to provide the internship program and support future scientists.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merck full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - Good work environment, with plenty of support.
- Good benefits and pay.
- Very flexible working environment.

Cons – - Bloated bureaucratic corporation.
- Constantly downsizing, or "leaning out."
- Too many middle managers, not enough front-line managers.
- Constantly need to justify your existence, meeting after meeting after meeting (i.e., get ready for a lot of powerpoint presentations).

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merck full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Vacation, points program, pharma product benefits

Cons – Currently a stagnant place of employ

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merck full-time for more than a year

Pros – great pay with great benefits.

Cons – It seems like our "plan of action" is always changing, so you have to be easily adaptable to changing job functions, schedules and work structure.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep the employees in the loop so we don't feel like we are constantly being jerked around without knowing the reason.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Merck full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Decent base salary. Good health benefits. 75% 401k match up to 6% of salary. There are quite a few people that work here who are smart, care about the work they do and work hard.

Cons – Bonus opportunity is pretty lousy for a "leading" company that makes money hand over fist in a highly regulated (you can read this as "protected") industry. Mid-level management seems to be under constant pressure due to reductions in the size of the company. Maybe it's because I have been here a while now (10-20 years) and just happen to see more, but it seems that over the past few years, middle managers are out to constantly market themselves and promote their invented best practices and busywork to higher levels while directing the actions of those reporting to them in single-minded support of making their boss look good. It's become very political.

Advice to Senior Management – Make the cuts you are going to make and get it over with. The constant axe hanging over everyone's head for the past few years is very demotivating and distracting. Get in touch with employees at more levels of the company - some of the middle layers are completely out for themselves, clearly don't do what is in the best interest of the company and should be removed. However, there is no opportunity to call these people out, and their poor behavior is rewarded by upper levels of management that don't seem to be paying attention.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Merck full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The appearance of Industry leading health care benefits. Merck does match 401k, well managed plan. Cafeteria, gym.

Cons – Nasty political environment. Change avoidance, not safe to speak up, territorial Managers who disdain innovation and creative ideas from subordinates.

Advice to Senior Management – Educate HR to support Company initiatives, such as Safe to Speak Up. Senior Executives should receive same service levels as every employee. Sell helicopter fleet, bad for morale.