senior research associate

research associate

senior scientist

scientist

manufacturing technician

Meso Scale Diagnostics

As a company, MSD’s undoing is its inability (and at times, unwillingness) to compete with other biotech in the area due to its generally low salaries and relatively poor benefits/PTO plans. As a result, there tends to be turnover due to people finding better paying jobs once they get enough experience at MSD. This causes perpetual understaffing, despite having multiple openings, which causes over-work and stress of the remaining staff. The work itself is fine and sometimes enjoyable, and the people who have remained tend to be outstanding, but inability to keep its top talent is this company’s kriptonite. 

MSD has made some futile attempts to fix this, such as increasing advancement of employees, or market adjustments to salaries, but its still not enough. In regards to salaries, most people are still underpaid for their skills compared to competitors, even after a cycle of market adjustments and/or promotions. This is particularly frustrating, because the pay tends to be the most cited reason as to why people leave, but they just fail to adapt. 

In regards to the work, it can be stressful but rewarding. There are plenty of opportunities to learn and cross-train, and management is always looking for people who take initiative and ask for more responsibilities; on this basis, advancement tends to be merit-related and years of experience take the backseat to hard-work (though pay is overwhelmingly tied to experience/education). 

Advice to candidates: apply if you are a hard worker and you want a stable job with potential for advancement. IF you are satisfied with the offer, you will likely enjoy your time at MSD. Though it will be stressful, you will gain solid experience and may find your work rewarding. 

Advice to company: pay your people. Improve PTO. Make more efforts towards team building and employee retention. In a climate where companies are implementing things like 4-day work weeks, unlimited and mandatory PTO, and employee recognition/engagement efforts, MSD cannot compete in its current state. The company will fail to grow because people can find more rewarding jobs elsewhere—there is no shortage of jobs in the area. 

•	Executed Operational Qualification and prepared summary reports on Agilent and Alliance HPLCs using Waters Millennium32. Included the qualification of HPLC dual UV detectors, photo diode array detectors, binary and quaternary gradient HPLC pumps
•	Act as a liaison between various groups such as Quality Assurance , Quality Control and Critical reagent
•	Developed Risk assessment and summarized mitigation methods 
•	Author ITR’s and SOP’s for day to day testing
•	Validate Assays that passed in QC back in R&D prior to release Design and execute experiments and analyze the resulting data in support of assay Development projects on MSD’s platform
•	Provide descriptive statistical analysis via tables, graphs and other tools for summarizing research results
•	Actively participating in customization and validation of the eDMSwith FDA regulations and 21CFR
•	Maintained a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)
•	Analyzed the test scripts to check if it has covered the minimum functionalities, which need to be in compliance with 21 CFR
•	Documented all the aspects of Systems validation lifecycle in accordance with the FDA regulations, Particularly 21 CFR Part 11 including Validation Plan and Protocol, Installation Qualification (IQ), Operation Qualification (OQ), Performance Qualification (PQ)
•	Coordinated with System Analyst, Project Manager and Business Analyst to setup the pre validation and Validation environment to execute the scripts
•	Perform Computer System Validation in both GAMP-4
•	Carry out design review after performing the risk assessment to write up design review documents 
•	Perform code review to complete 
•	Perform the performance monitoring for 2 lab systems.

I was taken in as a Network Systems Administrator due to the responsibilities and duties that I said I would be doing. I also asked for a pretty low salary that was close to what I was making to my previous job (a mistake I made) and they gave it to me. With that being said, I'm pretty sure if I went lower, they would have granted that. After 7 months of being here, I have come to realize how mentally exhausted and unhappy I am working here. I'm not getting paid for what I am actually worth, driving up there and back in 45+ min traffic every day is not worth the stress for what I'm paid for, my "team" sometimes doesn't feel like one as they exclude me out of some meetings, I have not actually been doing any system administration but moreso user administration and tier I "lackey" duties (the same environment I was trying to escape in the first place), and they recently installed new lights in the HR building which give me migraines automatically and I have to get up from my chair every now and then just to go outside for natural light or find a dark room. I'm mentally exhausted and I just cannot stay here any longer in this soulless work environment. If I was patient enough, I could still be at my old workplace and could have moved up into a Junior System Administrator position while keeping my same spunky and funny team. But you live and you learn.

Absolutely unprofessional from every stand point. Supervisors are the worst part of what is a relatively easy job. Highly untrained, very rude, narcissistic and can’t lead at all! Will gaslight you when they’ve made a mistake (which is often) and blame you the first instance they can. Won’t even agree amongst each other on how to run a department. High turnover was always likely, honestly I’m surprised they’ve spent so much time employed seeing as though there’s so much proof of their incapability to lead and run a department. Can’t even train new employees well enough to even become dependable. Overall an extremely unpleasant department to work in. The worst part about the management is how they have an obnoxious superiority complex with such supremely little job knowledge or comprehension. What’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things is dooms day for them and is always met with an absolutely tedious meeting held for so long that productivity drops just for them to make a point. Worst culture and work/life balance probably within the entire company. When people transfer they say “ We helped them transfer we didn’t need them anyways!” Just to save themselves from the embarrassment of yet another failed attempt at employee retention. Constantly get in there own way and always think they’re right and you are wrong!

The manufacturing department is toxic and a hostile working environment. Management is aware and so is HR but they do not care. Instead of dealing with the poor management the technicians are used as scapegoats. Retention is horrible because everyone quits mainly for being treated poorly. The hours are ok if you are aware prior to being hired but the actual work schedule is ridiculous. Even HR mentioned concerns about the rotating schedule but have done nothing to require a fair consistent schedule. Supervisors don't care about the difficult schedule because they don't have to work it.
Raises have gotten worse over the years but the company never fails to inform the employees of how much money they've made them. Company made millions during covid lockdown where employees were overloaded with work related to covid. We did not receive our raises or bonuses on time & when we did they weren't much compared to previous years. Their idea of increasing moral do to being overworked & not given raises & bonus, sandwiches..then proceeded to inform employees of the millions spent on remodeling the lobby of a building the employees aren't allowed to enter.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Co-workers were such great people.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Everything. You are watched, monitored, recorded and graded. You’re expected to work at an extremely rapid pace, without credit for the things you do “right”, and with constant reminders for the things you do “wrong”.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Super stressful; everything you do is timed and graded, and you hear about your mistakes and your “speed” every morning, right after you arrive for work. This type of environment does not allow you much peace-of-mind. You’re not acknowledged for trying, or for hard work. You’re sitting in your chair all day cranking out work and it’s just never enough.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It’s fast-paced from the minute you arrive, to the minute you leave.

The company presents very demanding and challenging duties with strict attention to details of accurate antibodies calculations for time sensitive deadlines of customer's order fulfillment with minimum pay. Salaries do not meet the level of acceptability in relation to the magnitude and expectation of the high demand of work performance required.
Management was non motivating and/or approachable for badly needed guidance on technical/scientific issues needing immediate attention and lacked on-going training for the daily supported product(s) in high demand evolving rapidly.

A notable benefit provided by the company is the twice yearly weekend work schedule allowing for a paid week off during the Christmas holiday.

In my time at MSD, I've witnessed multiple actions from management that can at best be attributed to naivety, but are difficult not to interpret as malice. Two examples that come to mind are a department manager intentionally misleading employees about the size of their annual raise, and the owner mocking non-native English speakers' pronunciation in front of the whole company at the annual holiday party. 

The only upside to this is that the hostility from the executives breeds a spirit of solidarity among the lower-level employees, which can be a source of comfort if you have tolerance for gallows humor. Just try not to reconcile your below-median pay and mediocre benefits with the rumored garage full of Ferraris on the Gaithersburg campus.

Before even considering to apply to this company, do your homework! You need to know that the company culture is one of intimidation and false accusations.  There is no opportunity for advancement and if you plan to resign and "they" like you, then and only then will they think of a counter offer.  Promotions are limited but they tend to hire from the outside, because they can fool outsiders better than those who already know about the issues within the organization.  The HR department is a nightmare with not one person qualified  in it, including the director, or better yet the former director.  That is why they are looking for one, once again.   A big sign should say "BEWARE, ALL IS NOT WHAT IS APPEARS".

Great work culture and a meaningful field for the advancement of human health through better diagnostics.  The people and management are nice too.  Management has a clear mission statement and a defined direction for the company's advancement and they communicate it well frequently as needed.
There is job security and opportunities to advance in within in some departments but the company can do little better on the compensation and on benefits offered and also on skills development by offering some courses or workshops perhaps.  Overall It can be relatively satisfactory experience and career for some if they decide to stay but can also serve as a good experience to prep you for work somewhere else too.

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