Brent.
I came to Epic thinking that maybe I'd go back to get a graduate degree. After about six months here I took a step back and realized that I had improved more in that time than I probably would have in all of grad school.
Why Epic?
Many other companies wouldn't even give me a chance because I didn't have industry experience. Epic just said "Looking for smart college grads." It was really nice to have a company that was not only willing, but eager to give me a chance. Once I visited Epic, the culture really won me over.
What projects have you tackled at Epic?
During my first two years, I developed one of the most used pieces of the inpatient medical record (flowsheets). I rewrote the engine used to provide best practice suggestions for users, making it more powerful and about 50% faster. I led the design of a process for performance testing development changes that is used by all other developers in the company. Now I'm working on the new web version of the software that everyone else at Epic uses to track their development, bugs, customer support, etc.
When did you know this was the right place for you?
I came to Epic thinking that maybe I'd go back to get a graduate degree. After about six months I took a step back and realized that I had improved more in that time than I probably would have in all of grad school. And they were paying me!
What could a typical day look like for you?
Every day starts with a pastry from the coffee cart and some juice. After that it could be anything: grading candidate tests, tracking down a bug that a tester found, reviewing my teammate's latest code, implementing a new feature, going to a design meeting about an enhancement idea someone has requested, or providing some "customer" support to my fellow Epic employees. My favorite days are when I have some complex problem I need to solve, and I can just bang out the code and leave at the end of the day with a working solution.
How have you made an impact at Epic?
I've found ways to help make life better for the rest of the company. I've improved our source control system, invented better ways to organize and structure our work, and created processes to make sure that other developers at the company are being recognized for the great work they do.
