Stressful, but still an excellent company - Senior Specialist, Quality Merck Employee Review

3.0
Sep 26, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

knowing that our products contribute to health and wellness, especially in the vaccine world where we can actually prevent illness and death

Cons

Stressful environment, but that is new reality for any company in our current economy. No longer feel like a job here is "winning the golden ticket" but to go to another pharma in area is more of the same.

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5.0
Jul 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work Life Balance, Benefits, Remote Work

Cons

Easy to stagnate if not being proactive about building skills and networking

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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