Terrible Place To Work - Engineer MSD Employee Review

1.0
Mar 23, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

big company so lots of moving parts and project initiatives

Cons

Lots of intermediaries which means you will start to question what exactly is the point of your role as you will mostly be playing the role of testing and coordination of other people's work, lots of technical debt again because of intermediaries, fraudulent job ads, you might just be hired to fill a role as a third-party resource to audit someone else's work as part of their audit for compliance and not actually find yourself doing the job that was advertised. The company blocks pay, managers are unapproachable, disorganized, and lack communication. IT support is more of a frustration. To find anything you have to hunt for it - complete lack of documentation. Lack of induction. Pay is very low. Lots of rude and unhelpful people. Racist and discriminating atmosphere. Plays games with candidates during interview stage without first securing funding. Makes you work without a contract for lengths of time and have to keep asking for one. Unprofessional environment where you will discover lots of unethical and dishonest practices. Lots of inefficiencies, mismanagement of resources, and excessive use of third-party outsourcing makes one wonder why even bother hiring employees.

Explore other reviews about MSD

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great team to work and grow with, also good learning enviroment

Cons

My entry time was not the best timing, during the middle of the war wirh Iran, so work was slow and over 200 people from that site were let go, including myself

1.0
Jun 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits package is good, looks good on a resume. That's about it.

Cons

I worked at Merck for a few years. While it wasn't the worst job I've ever had, it's pretty high up on the list. The company culture is best described as corporate hell. Everything is also extremely political. If you aren't someone who really buys into that and is willing to play the game, then you probably won't be happy there. My team also had an extremely toxic dynamic. One senior member was a notorious bully and mgmt did nothing. Several members of my small team were let go for seemingly political reasons. Very odd/suspicious. Our senior managers were a group of bitter older women in their 50s and 60s who behaved like high school mean girls, while the C suite was just incompetent. They wasted many millions of dollars attempting to develop an AI tool that turned out be a total flop, and then announced that 10% of the company was going to be laid off. Which of course just lowered morale even further. While Merck does look good on a resume, the actual job experience isn't that great because everything is very siloed so you don't have the opportunity to really develop new skills. Work life balance is also very poor. I will say that the pay and benefits package was good. I took the job as I had some financial goals to meet, and I was able to meet them thanks to the bonus, stock units, pension, etc offered by Merck. As soon as I hit my savings goal I gave notice. I've moved on to a new job that is low drama and values my contributions, and I feel extremely blessed to no longer work at Merck!

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