Pros
- Epic is a household name and badge of honor in the health industry. Working at Epic will open up a lot of doors for you wherever you go post-Epic, both in the Madison area or nationally. - Competitive salary (after a couple of years) compared to other companies in the Madison area. Initial starting salary for Implementation Services is sub-par when factoring in hours worked. - Lots of opportunities for advancement. You take on real responsibility quickly and can have a lot of control about the horizontal and vertical direction you go within the company (implementation leadership, team leads, application leads, specialty area, etc.). Onboarding and ongoing learning places a high emphasis on education. - Strong team mindset. You get really close with your immediate project teams and people across the application (IS, TS, QA, Devs, etc.) are overall really great, helpful people. - Travel (except during Covid times) can be really exciting to explore new places but will wear you down. Don't underestimate how taxing work travel is, strike a balance if possible.
Cons
- Upper management, upper management, upper management. See details below in Advice to Management. - TERRIBLE Covid response and ongoing pandemic policies (details in Advice to Management). - Poor work/life balance. Very common to consistently work 50+ and 60+ hours/week. This is especially true your first year or two, but does not level out as you advance. The hours you spend working are also more intense and draining compared to equivalent time I spent working at prior jobs. If you don't mind and don't get burned out, your perseverance is rewarded handsomely years down the road. - Your happiness is largely dependent on the team and projects you're assigned to and you have almost no control over them. - High turnover and employee dissatisfaction. It's going to catch up to the company some day. - Poor non-monetary compensation. Only two weeks of PTO for your first two years and maxing out at three weeks for even executive leadership. 401(k) match vesting schedule is terrible if you stay less than five years. Additionally, Epic only provides the employer contributions in bulk at the end of the year and only matches if you work the entire proceeding calendar year. Other benefits I used like the sabbatical, low-cost lunches, reimbursed travel credit card, and local store discounts are nice but outweighed by cons.