Epic puts absolutely no effort into employee retention. They seem to take a "there are always more fish in the sea" attitude to employees, preferring to hire and train new empolyees than keep their current ones happy. This means that they care very little about work/life balance and preventing their employees from "burning out", since they're perfectly happy with replacing people. This means that employee morale is low and you will be working very long hours for pay that is acceptable, but not necessarily commensurate to the stress and time requirements.
There is a somewhat cult-ish atmosphere to the company; this has become a bit cliche in describing Epic, but is true nonetheless. Madison is small, cold, and a very large percentage of people in the 22-28 age range work at Epic, so you will likely go out with fellow employees, reinforcing the cult-like ethos. This also makes the company rather clique-ish.
Management is highly variable. Top-level management is unready for the realities of a large company, and still treat the company as if it were ~350 people (instead of ~3500). Mid-level management ranges from competent and easy-to-work-with to utterly incompetent and difficult. Corporate red-tape abounds, which is ironic for a company that prides itself on being un- (or perhaps anti-) corporate.
As I said above, Epic is a great place to start out, but unless you are truly desperate to remain in Madison, Wisconsin, I do not understand how you could stay more than two years.
