Serono was great. If you are great, Merck Serono is not for you. Horrible mediocrity.
Pros
As long as you feed the people in Darmstadt and reply timely to their insane requests via email, you have nothing to fear. It is not about how great your run your business, but how good you are in politics. The C-level actually acknowledge to hire mediocre people, because they are afraid of high potentials: would be too demanding, difficult to manage and leave anyway. So if you are mediocre or below, you have found a matching company.
Cons
You will only survive if you don't have an opinion, no brain, no free will, no business sense and follow up on what you are told by the many, many "important" people from HQ. The number of templates you need to fill in, emails you have to reply to, protocols, procedures, lack of trust and control is unreal. Since your colleagues are most probably mediocre at best, you will find yourself in a working environment that doesn't challenge your brain, but kills it. Be prepared that delegating work may not be an option. Your co-workers are most probably not able to understand, execute or implement. You are on your own.
