Could be "Good to Great" again, only if... - Manager Merck Employee Review

1.0
Sep 4, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay, Medical Benefits, Ability to atract talent based on the past, big pharma experience nice to have in your resume.

Cons

Sr. Management lacking vision, simplicity, or clarity to communicate. Millions paid to external consultants to generate solutions. Excessive tolerance for poor performance at the Plain/Executive Director level causes stress across multiple levels. Formerly ran by scientists who cared about technology, deep scientific understanding, and a genuine commitment to getting medicine to patients, now in the hands of money minded people who only care about systematically destroying a legacy of scientific excellence. Lost scientific and technology direction. Not the place for academic excellence or intellectual curiosity.

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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