Becoming less desirable as a place of employment due to unstable future. - Anonymous employee Merck Employee Review

4.0
Oct 16, 2011
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay and benefits. Provides a feeling of accomplishment through compensation plans. Reasonable work and life balance. Some opportunities for career advancement, but far less options than in the past.

Cons

There is constant change which occurs within Merck and the entire pharmaceutical sector. It is longer a place where most employees will remain during their entire career. Downsizing on an annual basis has become the norm.

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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