I applied online, submitting my resume & cover letter. Within 1 week I had a phone interview. It was informal & took about 40 minutes. The focus was on my education background & not my work experience, but there were a few questions asked about my experience. I was asked for my start dates and graduation dates from college and graduate school, if I completed undegrad in 4 years, why I chose my course of study, etc. I was also asked if I went directly from HS to undergrad. This shouldn't have been asked & raised some red flags to me - essentially that type of question can be used to roughly figure out a candidate's age, which then raises the issue of age discrimination during the hiring process (I'm not saying it does or does not happen). The questions about my job history were basic - what did you enjoy most at your past/current employer, why did you leave one job to go to another, etc.
After 2 days, I was contacted to set up an on-site visit. I was flown out, put up in the Madison Concourse Hotel & had all my meals & transportation covered. I had dinner with an Epic employee (partly for a free meal & partly to learn more about Epic outside the "corporate setting"). When you arrive for your interview/visit, the new campus is amazing, I've never been on a corporate campus that compares to the park like setting they have developed. After you check in, you meet up with a group of other candidates for the initial activities (every candidate I met had just graduated from college). Here's what to expect during the day: 1) A corporate overview, it provided a minimal amount of information on Epic & the industry that isn't currently available to the public. 2) A "campus tour" consisting of walking through the main building & looking out the windows at the campus. 3) A product demo of the end user functionality of the software (it's not anything special). 4) A "position overview" with 2 other candidates from a current project manager. You'll get a better feel for the position, but the information will still be rather vague (i.e. a question like "what's the travel schedule really like?" gets the boiler plate 50% to 60% travel). 5) A 1:1 interview with a project manager to discuss a very banal situation analysis. You get the opportunity to ask questions of this interviewer though & from this interview I was given some travel specifics - it depends on what the customer will pay for, you may travel 3 days a wk every wk (leaving Mon. returning Thurs. night) until the installation is complete - that's not 50-60%, that's darn near 100% - or you may travel very little. 6) A 10 minute presentation; nothing to be worried about if you pick a topic your knowledgeable on. 7) Skills assessment tests (you may have done these already). These are nothing terrible, but can be a bit tricky. 8) Lunch with a project manager. 9) A wrap-up/final interview with an HR recruiter. The HR recruiter will ask you some odd questions like "name 5 things you are not." All in all, the interview process isn't out of the ordinary.
Ten days after the visit I was told that I'd be getting an offer & that I needed to fill out some information for a background check before the offer could be made.
Some other impressions of the company/position I got from the visit:
1.Epic is a very young company. I'm in my mid-late 20s & felt old walking around the campus. My guess is that at least 66% of employees were hired right out of college with no job experience & are under the age of 26.
2. Epic truly means it when they say casual dress. I don't mean casual like jeans & a polo, I'm talking "oh crap I'm late for class/work! What's on my floor that looks clean?" causal. I saw a very high number of employees in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops (much of which was dirty looking, faded, ripped, etc.). Also, many employees had scraggly, unkempt long hair and/or facial hair & numerous facial piercing (not just earrings). It looked more like a college campus than a business.
3. The project manager position is really a field based operations position. But you have to live in Madison, everyone does. Think about traveling from a small regional airport every week, & imagine the problems that can cause (my flight out was delayed an hour because they couldn't get another plane quickly, causing me to miss my connection - we had no weather related problems).
4. Very secretive, as evidenced by all employees having to sign a non-compete (not just those with knowledge of the proprietary coding) that isn't totally enforceable.
5. Based on information from people on campus I talked with, the project manager position has a very high turnover/burnout rate. Given that, do you really want to have to move to Madison where there is no industry (meaning you'd have to move again to find another job)?
