Epic Systems

1. Good salary and good increment for the first two years for SD.
2. Good campus with different themes for every building; it's very creative.

One of the first things I am disappointed with Epic is, they sell their Software Developer position by mentioning C#, .Net exclusively, but 70-80% of the job profile is Cache and VB-based. If you are even placed in a team which is working with .Net, mostly you would be coding in Cache (their backend language).

For some reason, I feel this as immoral and unethical to post jobs with a generic profile. I was told 2.5 years ago that they were moving to .NET with the release which was not true, as it would take another 2-3 years from now to start the move from VB to .NET.

In terms of career advancement, you would have very limited scope. Technology-wise, it's a hard sell for languages like VB and Cache. Whereas domain-wise, Epic makes you sign a non-compete agreement through which you cannot work with anyone working against Epic and with anyone working with Epic.

When I came to Epic, Judy (CEO) mentioned in one of the meetings that it takes 3 years to become an Epic employee. I understood quite late what it meant, as you do not have any other choice.

Work culture: Epic puts lots of pressure on the employees to put around 55-60 hours a week, and anything less than that and you are in the bottom 10% danger zone that gets kicked out every year. They do not give a compensatory off for working extra hours.

They have lots of software developers working on H1B. To save their working status, they have to put these many hours, which makes other people put so many hours, which is not healthy competition.

There are three major roles in Epic:

• Software Developers
• Technical Services (TS)
• Implementers (IS)

I am yet to meet an experienced TS or IS person who loved his job. For Software Developers, it depends on your team lead. They have vested lots of power in your team lead. If he says you do not perform, then any argument against it is useless.

Any geek who has done one very good project would be made your team lead irrespective of his managerial skills. You feel very controlled, and there is lots of micromanagement. They track how many comments you got on your code, to how many comments you can give, to how many doubts you ask your coworkers.

The good thing is they pay you well, but there is no personal satisfaction. Epic is like Walmart of the healthcare industry, where the company has a good name, but employees are not happy.

I am not sure who decided on Madison as being one of the top cities to live in the US. It's a small countryside place, and there is nothing there to do. Once on a Friday night, there were 3 people in a 30-lane bowling alley.

Bottom line is you need to have a good social life, or if you like a secluded life, then Madison would be a better place for you.