Epic Systems

Coworkers and Work Environment The people I worked with were people that I generally enjoyed being around. They were friendly, thoughtful, and more than willing to lend a hand when I needed help. While we did get individual or shared offices, it's not like there weren't opportunities to just drop in and chat. In general, the day-to-day work environment felt good.

Resources and Support: This may also be team-dependent, but generally speaking, coworkers are more than willing to help you out, dedicated to making sure that internal resources are up to date. There were always ways for you to help yourself even if you didn't quite know what to look for.

Comprehensive understanding of my work and impact: As my first full-time job out of college, I appreciate the time they take to help developers understand what they're working for. Going in, I didn't know very much about the healthcare industry, but in my time there I was able to get an understanding as to how various aspects of the industry can work, how all our different software works for the end user, how hospitals may have leveraged our customizable systems to various results, and how actual users work in real-time. Being able to see these things makes the work I did feel so much more real.

Responsibility and comprehensive experience: Depending on the person, this can be a pro or con, but if you're looking to understand all that can go into software development, there are opportunities to get your hands dirty and work on projects from the problem statement to post-release support. As a developer, you'll (generally) work full-stack with a few people and will lead project implementation. It's a lot to ask of a new grad, but if you can successfully release a feature, you'll be in a great spot to take those skills anywhere.

Team-dependent and management culture:

I've heard plenty of stories from coworkers on other teams where their teams weren't supportive or were otherwise squeezing too much from their employees. Your manager has one of the biggest impacts on your feelings towards a company, and unfortunately, not all managers are great. My first one was really good, making me feel like I could do well in my role. My second one I don't think was good for me—more aloof—and this tension in my relationship may have put a damper on what I could do.

Work-life balance:

Crunch happens, and it can happen often. Too many times it can feel like we get out of crunch for one project and jump into crunch for another project. It's easy to burn out. Pretty much everyone I know burned out at one point or another, so you need to learn to set boundaries (if they're respected, anyway).

Pro-management bureaucratic sentiments:

While Epic is supposed to be known as a more liberal/progressive company, that doesn't mean that management doesn't take care of number one first and foremost. Benefits mean less when you don't have a seat at the table, and Epic isn't willing to give you a seat at the table even if you are a shareholder.

Irrational commitment to in-person events:

Epic has gotten into hot water with their negligent COVID response, and it's not like they've learned from that, too. Your safety may be up to your boss's discretion. And don't even think about work from home or remote work. It is incredibly difficult to be in a position that allows you to work outside of the main campus, even if everyone has the ability to do so. You're going to have to move if you want to work here.

Role imbalance:

Depending on the role you have, your experience will vary wildly. Generally speaking, the developers are treated the best, then QMs see a pretty decent decline in benefits, and then TSs get the worst treatment of the common roles here. As much as I may have benefited from this system, I wish that QMs and TSs were able to get better treatment and compensation.