Vantaggi
Great opportunities for learning and personal development. Good salary. Difficult to beat the salary, if you can tolerate the unhealthy culture.
Svantaggi
A company which is full of pushy middle-managers with no life outside Novartis. Make your manager think that you work long hours, shout loudly about small achievements, and suck up to the right people and you will do well at Novartis. The people who do the work are not necessarily the ones who are rewarded. Keep your head down, and work efficiently and you'll end up stuck in the same job forever. A strong separation between the "loved" and "unloved" in Novartis. Depending on your manager and your department within the organization, associates might be offered 1000 times more development opportunities (e.g. MBA-sponsorship) than other, similarly-motiviated and capable employees.