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I did an internship at Epic and didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but I think their CEO Judy might be one of the best tech/general leaders ever. Epic has
by weitendorf 1y ago
I did an internship at Epic and didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but I think their CEO Judy might be one of the best tech/general leaders ever.
Epic has a reputation of hiring lots of new college grads. For software engineers that's not exactly uncommon, but Epic actually has a lot of employees working under titles like technical solutions/implementation solutions (or something like that): the people directly supporting the hospitals using Epic. Because these are pretty specialized roles, Epic has a very formal and fleshed out training program for their new hires with classes and courses and such, and it can take months to complete. They not only have their giant campus in Verona, they have an entire training center there, a huge auditorium for allhands, and a very streamlined recruitment process (for a ~21 year old it feels over the top luxurious). Although Epic does hire from more selective schools it seemed the majority of their new employees are from state schools in the Midwest.
They also are private despite their size, just basically don't do M&A and are, relatively speaking compared to other big corporates/tech companies, in the middle of nowhere.
In corporate America this is a highly unusual way to operate. I think it's underrated how big of a "risk" all these heterodox corporate strategies are for an executive and it speaks to amazing ideation and execution on Judy's part. Also, even though Epic does have a decent amount of turnover, she has taken a chance on tens if not hundreds of thousands of young people who didn't have the skills she needed them to have already, by giving them months of training and a really solid start to their careers.
- impendia 1y ago> it seemed the majority of their new employees are from state schools in the Midwest. I went to the University of Wisconsin for grad school, and I knew lots of people there who went to work for Epic. I confess that, before I applied, I imagined that Wisconsin was nothing but cow pastures and football. I imagine this sentiment is shared my many young job-seekers outside the Midwest. Now, having lived there for four years, I have to say that UW is an amazing university, and Madison is my favorite city in the US.
- red-iron-pine 1y agowhen I drove across the US for the military, relocating to near Seattle, I took a bunch of leave and stopped in Madison. ended up staying longer than I planned due to having a car parked in the wrong place and getting towed but really enjoyed the city. winters would be rough but the summers would be nice. culture seemed neat. kind of like a smaller, colder Austin.