Pros
Overall company: Company has good benefits (medical, dental, vision, etc.) and decent long-term incentives (pension, RSUs above a certain employee grade, etc.). As a division of Abbott Laboratories, AV is a very stable company (i.e. not a risky start-up that might go under). Clinical Science department: There are a number of good, committed clinical research scientists who work very hard, know what they are doing, and are committed to the end goal of bringing new treatment options to patients. Cross-functionally there are also a lot of very good people to work with.
Cons
Overall company: AV sometimes is a little out of sync with the parent Abbott Laboratories company. People at AV are held at lower pay grades than at the parent Abbott company, even though the cost of living is higher. Consistent "doom and gloom" message from senior management to encourage belt-tightening measures over the past 2 years have significantly lowered overall morale. Excessive red tape procedures and processes, even for a large company. Clinical Science department: Weak leadership with poor management skills at multiple levels. Senior management insulates themselves with too many layers of middle management. Extremely limited opportunities for advancement, since department is very reluctant to promote even though promotions seem to happen in other departments. In the past couple of years about half of the clinical science department have left AV for other companies (including some of the best people) but senior mgmt has not allowed backfill so the workload for the remaining employees has gotten worse to the point that things don't get done or get done at much poorer quality because there just aren't enough people to do all the work at high quality.