Turning from a science driven company to a people driven one - Senior Scientist Merck Employee Review

4.0
Nov 22, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of training/learning opportunities (rotation program is awesome), especailly for new grads. You can easily find experts in that field if you want to learn things. Colleagues are in general nice and helpful. Competitive compensation, pension plan (rare in the industry nowadays), educational assistance (only $5250/year though), paid paternity leave (dads as well), flexible working hours etc.

Cons

Culture going downhill quickly. Science used to the top priority but not anymore. A lot of managers are scientifically mediocre while senior/experienced scientists have no direct report. Can you believe R&D directors only hold a bachelor degree? Career opportunities are fairly limited.

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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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