I bought a lemon - Support Associate Merck Employee Review

1.0
Jun 20, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

My current pay and benefits are the only positives I can think of.

Cons

I have been here for 15 years, having left a Supervisory position to work for the "great" Merck. I was told in my interview that they would pay my tuition and with my management experience, I would have a great career at Merck. Here I am 15 years later, still at the bottom, with no degree ( Merck would not pay my tuition, that was a lie) and no chance for advancement. All this after having been the top producer in my department for 10 years. I cannot even get an excel class.

Explore other reviews about Merck

5.0
Jun 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits and pay are great

Cons

Depends on manager and organization is how your experience and work life balance will be

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.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All