I heard about Epic through a friend who had already gone through the process and decided to apply. I was told they were still filling positions for software developers and was directed to fill out the application online. I heard back a day or two later about setting up a phone screening.

The phone screening was a software developer basically making sure I was a person. I was asked about my interests and some basic school background. There was one technical question about how I would implement something based on the interests I had expressed earlier.

A few days later I received an email to set up an online testing session. The test was the basic math/speed/programming test you've probably read about online. I had prepared somewhat for this, but not much due to schoolwork.

I found the programming section to be fairly challenging.

After a few more days, I received an email saying they were continuing with other candidates for the software developer position (which I was expecting after taking the test), but they wanted to bring me up to interview for a Business Intelligence and Server Systems position. These were not really areas that I was interested in, but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity in case it turned out to be awesome. I took a personality test online and filled out the form for the interview and submitted it.

For the interview, Epic puts you up in a very nice hotel in downtown Madison. The night before I opted to do the dinner tour. This was with three other candidates and our guide (an Epic employee). The food was excellent and the walking tour was great.

The next day I headed over to Epic for my interview day. Traffic was pretty bad on the way, but once arriving and checking in, I was given a folder with my plan for the day. Everyone starts with the Epic spiel, then a software demo. Next, it was on to the Server Systems interview. This was in a small interview room - very laid back. I asked about the details of the position and was basically told it was server support, some Perl scripting, but mostly customer support since each client has a different back-end setup.

Next, I was off to a facility tour and then lunch. The tour was cool - the themed buildings/areas are nice, but I didn't see any employees actually using these areas. Lunch was amazing! The food is heavily subsidized for employees (free for candidates on the interview day) – sandwich bar, salad bar, grilled fish, prime rib, etc. The dining area is designed like a timber-framed mountain lodge.

After lunch, I was off to the Business Intelligence interview. This actually started with an employee explaining the role and what they did. Extremely laid back. This lasted around ten minutes, and then I was off to another room for the actual interview. I was interviewed by someone who looked to be barely out of high school and extremely uncomfortable. The interview was a case study (related to report writing/data presentation).

I was then told to go and take a language test (like the SAT) and then head to my closing interview with HR. This was very laid back, just wanting to see how the day went, my thoughts on Epic and working there, and between the two positions I had interviewed for, which (if any) I was leaning toward. Because I was really not interested in being a server support specialist, I said I was leaning more toward BI and was asked for percentages, to which I replied around 70/30.

Almost two weeks later, I received a call stating that it was an extremely difficult decision, but that they had decided to continue with other candidates. While it’s always difficult to hear rejection, I feel it was the best decision for both parties. I had plenty of time to think about what I would do if I received an offer and came to the conclusion that I wanted to go into software development and it wasn't worth taking a position that I wasn't interested in simply because the pay was good (>70k) and the health benefits were great.

Overall, the Epic hiring process is long. I think Epic would be a great place to work and I’m sure a lot of it is what YOU make of your experience there. That being said, they do have an extremely high turnover (this is mostly related to the developers) and are pretty much always hiring. I was told by HR that they received something like 250K resumes/applications each year and interview hundreds of people each month. They are boosting their employee numbers by a couple of thousand, I believe, so there are definitely jobs. If you make it to the interview process, it’s a great experience and practice regardless of the outcome. I certainly do not regret my experience and everyone at Epic was more than friendly.

Good luck!

The case study was the most difficult part. It was basically a report being created for a doctor, asking how it could be improved and how you would present it (what kind of graph), etc.

Just look up BI case studies/examples and know some basics of SQL/database queries/structure, and you'll be fine.

All other questions were typical interview questions.