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, we even had contractors quit because of them, and mgmt did nothing. Instead, they fired other team members, who all happened to be targets of this person. It was 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!