Pros
Great people work at Novartis. Passionate about healthcare, most of them sincere about making a difference. There are opportunities for career development for those willing to seek them out and stay on top of them, make them happen. Overall work/ life balance could be improved, but I always found Novartis to allow flexible scheduling for employees to tend to family matters.
Cons
From senior leaders on down, people are often reluctant to make a decision, to be accountable, to speak up for what they think is right, to stick their neck out. This starts at the top. Many people are promoted into leadership positions based on their technical / scientific expertise. Some of them are good leaders; however, more often, these technical experts are sorely lacking in leadership skills such as setting a vision, communicating to their people, forming and shaping teams, managing people development. Novartis like many large companies believes it can make up for these leadership deficiencies through "organizational development" -- i.e. teaching leaders to lead. That doesn't usually work. Hire and develop real leaders, and leave the technical experts in charge of technical aspects of the business.