Epic reviews

- Awful work-life balance. The minimum expectation for a work week was 45 hours, enforced by a weekly work plan that required you to lay out 45-50 hours worth of estimated work, "so you'll never have nothing to do." Failing to produce 45-50 hours worth of work a week leads to questions about your capability and commitment. - Incredibly high turnover across all roles, especially among recent college grads, evidenced by an obvious age gap between the old guard and constantly churning new team members. Do not expect to last more than 2 years at Epic unless you sacrifice a large chunk of your personal life. If you, like me, are looking for a job to put in your hours, get paid, and go home at the end of the day to live your own life, run away and don't look back. At the least, please have an exit plan ready. Ask around Madison - the story of plucky starry-eyed grads pushed to their breaking point, "ground up into productivity paste" (as another ex-Epic employee so vividly put it), and discarded without concern is a common one. Some will say that they just couldn't make the cut, or were lazy and undisciplined. Some of you reading this probably agree. I encourage you to take a look at the numbers yourself, if you can find them. - Inability to move between roles and teams if your current one is not a good fit. I was promised by HR during the hiring process that I could change roles if things didn't work out (as I was hired into a development role despite applying for a different position). Despite repeated conversations with my manager and my obvious struggling, I was let go without even the most basic attempt at addressing my concerns about my role. As I came to learn from speaking with more tenured employees, this is a common thing at Epic - counter-intuitively, and despite what HR will tell you during the interview process, only those performing very well in their *current* role are eligible to change roles. Epic would rather write off their investment in an under-performing employee than give them a second chance in the role they ask for. - The "startup culture" feel is a lie. Don't let the campus fool you; Epic is a 10,000+ person company now, and it is run like once. Weekly work plans, performance evaluations and improvement plans, and the cold uncaring nature of a massive corporation are becoming the norm. - "Team Leads" (AKA your direct manager) are often promoted out of a development role with little to no additional training. This means that the quality of your manager is a total crapshoot. The Peter Principle is in full-force here. - 6 month on-boarding process for new developers, due to the outdated technologies in use. While recent attempts to migrate to modern platforms are ongoing, you will still spend up to 6 months in classes, being tested regularly with exams while you slowly spin up in your actual job. Don't expect to be able to Google your problems once you actually start development; Stack Overflow cannot save you. The development cycle is similarly long - a single change of minor to moderate complexity generally takes 1-2 weeks to complete, passing through 4 rounds of review before being approved.

Poor management: Management will overload you with tasks with little purpose or direction. TL’s have little empathy for your free time and mental health as they’re solely focused on your hours worked. Poor culture: Their “feedback culture” is often used as a conduit for petty behavior reminiscent of high school gossip. It becomes quickly apparent who is seen as a “good fit” aka “good enough” for the job. The corporate Koolaid is potent. Easy to burnout: A hefty workload is demanded almost immediately, which can easily cause work burnout and immense stress, especially paired with travel. Once you start working 45 a week, you’ll be told 50 is the minimum; once you start 50, you’re told 55-60; and so forth. Lack of diversity: You’ll be told that diversity and inclusion are huge focus areas, but the staff is almost completely white. Coworkers have a tendency to be openly uncomfortable with you being even remotely out if you’re LGBTQ+. The President of the company has made some racist and homophobic remarks. Poor HR responses: HR does anything to protect the company image, even if it means employees are sabotaged. Stockholm syndrome: It becomes incredibly hard to leave due to Epic’s noncompete as well as the toxic culture which makes you feel inadequate for leaving. The benefits mixed with your relocation package also trap you in.