PM at Epic for one year
Pros
This list is going to be odd, but truthful: -Salary: You make really good money. -Coworkers: The people you work with are extremely competent, hardworking professionals. I have an incredibly high opinion of the people who I worked with, and it pained me too see talented people burn out and quit during my time there. -Good project management experience and opportunities to interact with and solve problems for a variety of IT and healthcare professionals. Also you will hone your time managment skills. -Learn public speaking. You will be addressing more than 100 professionals sometimes, and you get really good at presenting effectively. -Campus/ offices -Break rooms w/ fridges always stocked with tons of drinks -On Campus food -Underground Parking -Freedom to control your schedule: There isnt really any clocking in or out. You self report your hours.
Cons
-Hours: Long. Everyone says there is poor-work life balance. It is true. Believe it. If you are a sedentary type who likes sitting down all day, then going home after 10-12 hours and sitting down some more, this job is a good fit. If your active/ fit and like to work and 8-9 hour day, this job will wear at you. Generally I'd get home in winter, go for a run or to the gym, eat dinner, then sleep. Thats how the week is. -Amount of work: You will keep getting more and more responsibilities. My boss told me he knows people have too much work when they break down and cry in front of him. Telling your Team Lead (AKA direct superior) that you really have too much work will usually result in 2 conversations: a) you need better time management skills/ to sacrifice more of your personal time for the company. b) "Epic might not be the right fit" conversation where you are passively aggressively told you may want to quit. -Travel: When you are supporting two customers and you are travelling all the time, here is what happens: You fly to customer A and work on that project all day. Then you go back to the hotel after work and do all the work you needed to get done for customer B. In the office you will deal with both customers at once, and your internal responsibilities. -Internal responsibilities: Most people have quite a few internal things they work on, like developing training materials, Writing and triaging QA notes, Developing new content, webinars, meetings, etc. They are a time suck and many things are , arguably, unnecessary. -Go lives: When a customer turns on the software and starts to use it, Epic staff volunteer to fly out and help. You fly to a hospital and act as Tech support for 2 or 3 Twelve hour days. You receive no incentive for doing this. You are salaried, so the hours do not affect your pay. You will be told that you should do it because you're a team player. However, they bill customers for your hours. So, you are making Epic thousands of dollars and receiving no benefit. You will be passive aggressively threatened if you don't do enough go-lives. Many occur on weekends. If you do a weekend shift, epic gives you one (not two) days of vacation as compensation.
