In general a good place to work (with some important things to mention). - Designer MSD Employee Review

4.0
Dec 27, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good benefits (e.g. a phone + almost unlimited mobile plan to all employees). - Big name pharma company. - Friendly atmosphere. - Full stack development teams make it possible to make an IT career switch if you look for it. - A product team can get a lot of freedom in driving the development and having a say in decision making rather than just following direct orders from business (who budgets the projects). - Big support of LGBT community and diversity in general. - Very nice year end and summer parties in Prague.

Cons

- High bureaucracy due to the need of documenting literally everything. - Political games of mid-senior management create pressure inside of teams and result in unhealthy atmosphere. Fortunately, that doesn't happen to each project here. - Office seating is a constant problem (exceeding level of CO2 and very noisy work space... sometimes it's impossible to focus on your work).

Explore other reviews about MSD

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great team to work and grow with, also good learning enviroment

Cons

My entry time was not the best timing, during the middle of the war wirh Iran, so work was slow and over 200 people from that site were let go, including myself

1.0
Jun 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits package is good, looks good on a resume. That's about it.

Cons

I worked at Merck for a few years. While it wasn't the worst job I've ever had, it's pretty high up on the list. The company culture is best described as corporate hell. Everything is also extremely political. If you aren't someone who really buys into that and is willing to play the game, then you probably won't be happy there. My team also had an extremely toxic dynamic. One senior member was a notorious bully and mgmt did nothing. Several members of my small team were let go for seemingly political reasons. Very odd/suspicious. Our senior managers were a group of bitter older women in their 50s and 60s who behaved like high school mean girls, while the C suite was just incompetent. They wasted many millions of dollars attempting to develop an AI tool that turned out be a total flop, and then announced that 10% of the company was going to be laid off. Which of course just lowered morale even further. While Merck does look good on a resume, the actual job experience isn't that great because everything is very siloed so you don't have the opportunity to really develop new skills. Work life balance is also very poor. I will say that the pay and benefits package was good. I took the job as I had some financial goals to meet, and I was able to meet them thanks to the bonus, stock units, pension, etc offered by Merck. As soon as I hit my savings goal I gave notice. I've moved on to a new job that is low drama and values my contributions, and I feel extremely blessed to no longer work at Merck!

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