Good company with strong mission and competitive compensation package - Global IT Director Merck Employee Review

4.0
Jul 12, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mission is about saving and improving lives and that is real; many decisions about priorities and funding relate back to that mission. People are very nice and they treat you like a human being and not a number; many have a personal story about what brought them to the company (e.g family member with cancer). Pretty diverse in regards to gender, race, sexual orientation, etc (although not as much at the senior executive level). Global opportunities exist if interested.

Cons

Takes a long time to get things done. Processes are laborious and require much red tape. Obtaining funding can be a very painful process, as can getting approval to hire new personnel (permanent or contract). Some senior leaders have advanced more on tenure than skills. Hours can be long, particularly in global roles. In the US, the best location for executive exposure is New Jersey.

Explore other reviews about Merck

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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