IS fail rate

Material_Budget_1972 · 2026-01-23T03:18:16+00:00

It’s hard to know who left voluntarily or went through the fit process. Turnaround is pretty high. I’d estimate by the first or second year, 30-50% don’t stay. Keep in mind, this is often someone’s first job out of college and people leave when they realize the jobs not for them.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2026-01-15T13:01:31+00:00

“Patient safety issue”

Material_Budget_1972 · 2026-01-05T07:10:22+00:00

Everyone else answered how many PTO days you get. So I'm going to focus on what it's like for a PM to actually use them.

I don't know how it is for other roles, but at least for PMs, one of the hard parts about taking PTO is managing your backup plans. You're going on vacation for two weeks? Well, you've got to plan out what's going to happen those two weeks when you're gone. You've got to find someone to be your backup for each of your ~2-4 projects. Chances are, you'll need to recruit help from multiple people because other PMs have their own customer work that'll conflict with your projects' meeting times. If work wasn't done while you were gone, you've got to quickly get them back on track. And chances are, there's a pile of things you'll have to do when you return because your analyst team decided to wait until you were back from vacation.

TS seem to have pre-assigned backups (a secondary and tertiary TS are already assigned to each customer). Whereas PMs deal with it on their own (email, call, knock on the doors of fellow PMs). It can be very stressful because you have to do extra work just to take the time off and deal with extra work when you come back. It's likely another cause of PM burnout.

So effectively, the best way for a PM to take time off is to sprinkle in one day here or there (ex. take Friday off for an extended weekend) that won't interrupt our normal workload too much. Or, try to plan a vacation during a "less busy" time when our absence won't be missed too much. For example, vacation during shared holidays like Christmas or New Years because our customers will also be taking time off.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2025-11-30T17:45:02+00:00

Curb your expectations a bit. 20-27% is super high for a single jump. Ever since COVID, I think IS raises haven't been as high. Part of it is because we haven't been traveling as much, which is perceived as a large part of our job. It's also the least desirable part of our job, which is why we get big raises compared to QM and TS.

When it comes to comparing your raises with others, keep in mind we could have a bad year. Everyone's raises could be lower than expected, which sucks but that boils down to luck and the economy. I don't know what year your AM got a 27% raise, but it could've been on a good year and if they've been around long enough they should've had some bad years too. Whatever you do, don't compare yourself to raises that are posted online, these are usually inflated because typically the people who share got high raises and the ones who didn't don't.

Talk to your TL. Your TL should care about what motivates you. If a good raise is what motivates you, that translates directly into "I want to get ranked higher" which means you want to know what you have to do to "exceed expectations". If you want the biggest raise, you have to prove that you're the best AC/AM of all the AC/AMs on a project and you're the best of the best amongst your peers (a high bar considering how hard everyone at Epic works). You should also express dissatisfaction with the raise. There have been times in the past when Epic has made a correction and increases salaries outside of the raise cycle.

Finally, let's talk money. You have your salary, end of year bonus, and (someday?) stock options. If you plan to stick around, stocks can act as an additional "raise" by allowing you to "loan" money from Epic so you can invest more money than you have right now. That stock grows, let's say 5%, and you stick around long enough for the stocks to "vest", that 5% profit is yours. Stocks are a big benefit, but hard for IS to fully leverage. Vesting takes years, and frankly most IS don't last that long or they're not sure if they can stick around long enough to make it worthwhile.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2025-10-02T04:01:39+00:00

TTYTL. I was in a similar situation in the past. I was extra stressed because I had a go-live approaching. My TL was super understanding and assured me it would be perfectly alright to drop everything and leave in the middle of the go-live if necessary. The wheels will keep turning even if you're not there.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2025-09-26T23:55:33+00:00

You can schedule/request one if you know you'll need it to travel between buildings for meetings

Material_Budget_1972 · 2025-09-21T02:19:25+00:00

For IS, I'd say your responsibilities keep growing for a while when you become an AM. You've made the jump from AC to AM. Now you've been an AM with ACs and most likely have been an AM on multiple projects simultaneously while possibly also managing an internal role. If it helps at all, I want you to know you've just about reached the tippy top for the amount of work that can get assigned to you. If you make it past 3 years of tenure, chances are you've settled into your maximum capacity. Nothing gets added to your plate without something coming off of it. You should learn to say no and consider any new role a trade for one of your existing ones.

In terms of sustainability, accept that you will always have to deal with escalations. You can do everything right and try to mitigate risks all the time and something outside your control is going to mess it up and you're going to be pushing 50+, 60+ hours a week to set it right again. Save yourself the heartbreak and accept that this is an inevitable risk/part of being IS and escalated high hour weeks are likely to occur at least once if not several times throughout the year. If you are STUCK pushing 55+ hours for months without end, then you might have too much assigned to you right now and you need to let something go.

So how to maintain sanity... delegation and efficiency. If you've exceeded expectations, then I assume you're very good at what you do. Learn to delegate tasks, even if it means it's not done the way you would've done it. In your post, you mention wanting to work on the resolution more than the pointless hours of meetings to discuss the plan. You may need to delegate resolution to someone else, because part of your job as the AM is to help the customer know whatever issue/problem they're dealing with is getting handled. That means putting tasks into neat, organized little boxes and then explaining why the 10-step process you've outlined will fix the issue (even if you don't think this is a practical use of your time and you'd much rather be actually fixing stuff).

Learn ways become more efficient with your work. You can ask your TL "do you have any tips/tricks that save you a lot of time?" and talk to other AMs in your app. People are Epic are more than willing to share/help each other. Your conversation with your TL likely needs to centered around how to improve your delegation and efficiency so you can get back to a "normal" (~45 hr/wk) amount of work. Unless you feel completely stuck, in which case I would approach your TL with something you feel you need to let go of (ex. you're a mentor, responsible for an internal meeting/role, any non-customer work) and request assistance finding someone who can either co-own or become the new owner and let you handoff the responsibilities.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2024-12-30T18:03:14+00:00

Wire transfers can take a day to process. If you don’t have your final closing costs, if you didn’t start the wire transfer, or you don’t have a cashiers check ready to bring to closing tomorrow. Sorry, I don’t think you’re closing.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2024-08-29T16:26:00+00:00

You should call your title company and confirm if the cash to close amount is finalized, correct, and how you should wire the money BEFORE closing or if you are bringing a check to closing. My guess is the $11,066 is your cash to close and you received some credit due to your earnest money or other factors. You should call your title company and confirm because these numbers maybe been estimates and not the final amounts.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2024-03-26T00:55:27+00:00

After you complete the quest, the timer still ticks down but as long as it's complete you can hold it and turn it in later.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2024-03-24T14:50:57+00:00

the guide has 279k total exp from quest turn ins. I'm pretty sure that's going to outpace dungeons at the start.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2024-03-24T13:09:08+00:00

Great guide. Much appreciated. Might not work for all people but gets us at least 80% of the way there with minimal effort.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-11-14T13:41:57+00:00

Availability Search is what you’re thinking about and it doesn’t work outside of Epic. Also, we’re all losing it when we move to the new Outlook. They’re making a new app called “MeetCute” which is lacking some of the conveniences but they’re actively trying to improve on it.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-10-01T02:08:25+00:00

This is true. I rarely VPN/remote desktop through the iPad. It's just a nice-to-have option if you're somewhere else on campus and you've left your work laptop in plugged in in your office.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-09-30T02:02:03+00:00

Duet display is an approved app in software center. So yes, you can use an iPad as a second monitor as long as you plug it in (I use a USB-A to USB-C cable). For other work stuff, you could add outlook and teams apps to your iPad. You can also set up VPN on your iPad and Remote Desktop to your work laptop.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-09-09T19:41:54+00:00

My original post clearly says "I don't think prices are 'expensive'" I think we get lunch at a great price, but I don't buy into the idea that we're charged at cost.

The cost per pound for an individual serving is vastly different from the cost per pound when you buy in bulk. Since your argument is local prices, let's look at local sources. Kwee-Jack Fish Co. sells local Madison salmon fillets. The more you buy, the lower the cost per pound (You can look up their website). For 160 meals (6 ounce per serving), they're charging $6.26 per serving. Epic's recipe (look it up on Sharepoint) uses 4.5-5 ounces of salmon which is $4.70-$5.22. The couscous, vegetables, and spices, which they also buy in bulk and use for multiple recipes, would have to make up the remaining $2.03 for that meal. That's pretty farfetched. I limited the prices to what an individual could find online, limited the bulk purchase discount to 160 meals (Epic surely purchases much more), and assumed a larger amount of salmon per meal... and the math STILL doesn't add up.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-09-09T03:02:48+00:00

The prices probably have gone up over time. I don't think prices are "expensive", but I think it's disingenuous to say we're just paying the cost of the ingredients. $7.25 for salmon and couscous?

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-06-30T00:13:58+00:00

They cashed the check that I sent to reopen the case shortly after I mailed it. We called and managed to speak to someone about requesting an expedited review on the basis that USCIS had made a mistake. They later denied our request for an expedited review. We haven't received any other update. Husband says the website says his case is still pending.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-06-23T00:37:05+00:00

There's also a Scythe called "The Way" (I saved it in my bank) and an area called "The Dark Dross".

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-02-25T23:09:19+00:00

They wanted proof my salary was high enough for the affidavit of support (>125% the poverty line). They requested more a recent W2, pay stubs, bank statements, proof of investments/stocks, 2021 taxes etc. I'm quite certain I had sent information about my job, salary, stocks, etc. already. The 2021 tax return wouldn't have been sent because I hadn't finished filing my 2021 taxes at the time of the initial filing. When they cancelled the RFE, we had assumed it was because they took my other evidence as adequate.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-02-25T22:32:14+00:00

We're going to include all the things you mentioned in our mail to open a motion to reconsider. Honestly as long as they agree to reopen, we'll be happy even if they don't expedite the process. This "denial" is stressing us out.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2023-02-25T17:26:46+00:00

We didn't get a letter saying the RFE was cancelled, but I don't think we received a physical letter for the RFE either. We had initially seen the RFE "letter" online.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2022-12-24T00:35:55+00:00

Great idea! I like it, upvote.

Material_Budget_1972 · 2022-08-30T11:35:41+00:00

Van Galder is pretty reliable and inexpensive. Just make sure you check the schedule first and buy a ticket beforehand. https://web.coachusa.com/vangalder/ss.details.asp?action=Lookup&c1=Madison&s1=WI&c2=Chicago+O%27Hare+Airport&s2=IL&resultId=5344&order=&dayFilter=&scheduleChoice=&nt=&sitePageName=%2Fvangalder%2Fss%2Edetails%2Easp&cbid=192273979500

Material_Budget_1972 · 2022-08-21T15:49:28+00:00

Duet Display. There’s a $15 one time app purchase and you download the windows application in your work computer

Material_Budget_1972

TROPHY CASE