Epic Systems

Great opportunity for anyone who is really smart and capable of true responsibility. Folks in their mid-twenties are routinely entrusted with keeping customers with $10M contracts happy. As you show that you can handle it, you acquire more responsibility. The boss calls it "earned autonomy."

The company's software is routinely rated higher than all competitors by a neutral industry rating organization, and we win contracts with many more customers than our competitors (in our target market, which is health care organizations ranging in size from large to huge).

There is very little bureaucracy or office politics.

The company invests in people. Programmers have 3 months of training; other jobs, a bit less.

The work is worth doing. The software genuinely improves the quality of health care, which is a lot more rewarding than working on some accounting system would be.

Epic is not a publicly traded company. So that whole set of pressures and competing priorities is entirely absent.

All, or nearly all, of the management folks started as programmers. So management understands the work and concerns of the technical staff.

Here are some turnover figures, computed in May 2008:

• 16% of new hires leave within the first year
• 31% of new hires leave within the first two years
• 50% of new hires are still with the company after 4 years
• 32% of new hires are still with the company after 10 years

This represents a pretty low turnover rate. For national figures on turnover, see http://www.bls.gov/news.release/nlsoy.t02.htm. (Unfortunately, this table doesn't distinguish between professional jobs and burger-flipping.)

For programmers, the downside is that the software is pretty much special-purpose. You won't be able to check off a bunch of buzzwords on your resume because of your work at Epic. You won't get experience working with the hottest new technology.

Some positions involve a huge amount of travel, and people can burn out after 2 to 4 years.

All, or nearly all, of the management folks started as programmers. Their level of management skill varies widely.

Bring in more outside training in management, new technologies, and professional development.