Decent first job - as long as you know what you are getting into - Technical Services Epic Employee Review

- Haphazard management style. The management system at Epic is such that those with strong technical skills are promoted to managers (TLs), rather than those who actually have the ability to manage people. In addition, there is no dedicated middle management role - those who get promoted TL still have to carry out both their TS and management duties. In other words, emphasis on strong management is lacking since managerial responsibilities are tacked on. The implications for this is that unless you (as a TS) have a VERY strong sense of self-direction, expect to receive a very hands-off management style. In addition, you are treated as a number (disposable) by upper-management - this is especially the case if there's any sign of negative customer feedback due to Epic's feedback-focused culture (termination). - Inconsistent documentation. Given that researching information to serve your customer's needs is an essential part of your job, more care needs to be taken with regards to actually documenting technical information. While customer-facing documentation is adequate for answering basic questions, the internal Wikis are disorganized in terms of finding specific technical information relating to build and testing configuration. - The expectation of taking ownership on issues for which you may have no pre-requisite knowledge of. The general expectation of any job (from previous experience) is that one usually starts with a limited set of responsibilities and those responsibilities get bigger as one gains more knowledge and experience. In Epic, prepare to have a jarring experience during the first three to nine months of employment (after training) for which you are expected to solve customer issues where you may have no background knowledge of. This can make weekly calls especially stressful since half the battle is trying to understand what your customer actually wants before going through the troubleshooting process. The successful TS are the ones that develop their own set of methodologies to tackle this - but there is a lack of a systematic training approach regarding how to effectively solve these types of problems. This factor is what usually likely contributes to the long hours (+45-50 hrs.) mentioned in other reviews. - Training. It is good that Epic invests a LOT of resources toward application training (probably >95% of companies out there). However, there are some gaps in the training process for TS-specific roles. As a TS, since you are expected to manage deadlines for application upgrades and go-lives (i.e. delivering build for content, validation). Despite this, there is a lack of project management training compared to that of other roles such as IS. - High turnover. The median tenure of a TS is generally two years - and this is due to the heavy workload (mentioned in other reviews), lucrative exit opportunities (consulting), and lack of transferable technical skills outside of healthcare. The implications for this is that there is likely a lack of a solid knowledge base within your team - this leads to project delays (general inefficiency), and it may require you to multiple people for help until you can reliably piece together conflicting information. This problem is exacerbated since Epic primarily hires fresh college graduates who may have little to no experience in the healthcare industry. - Varied quality of customer analysts. Some customers can manage themselves and it's an absolute blessing to work with them on big projects you are addressing their questions / assisting them in determining scope or build. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are other customers who want to be hand-held throughout the project (no self-management) - this can make or break your experience as a TS. - Limited resources for assistance. While the online resources available (group e-mails to those who specialize in a particular area, online forums) definitely assist in finding the information you need, there may be cases where meeting the person of expertise would be more beneficial. However, scheduling a time to meet people face to face is fairly cumbersome since they are juggling their own heavy workloads or they may be out of office due other commitments (go-lives, customer work, internal projects). - Lean hiring process. Epic usually hires just the minimum needed for people to carry out their work - this can lead to long hours, and burnout. - Limited ability to advance your career (>3 yrs.) due to limited ability to transfer roles and flat management structure. Throughout your tenure at Epic, expect to be within the same position throughout (no promotion). This limits your ability to play to your strengths and to develop yourself as an employee down the road.