This is just totally untrue, Epic is fine as a Dev. I have many friends who work there, none of them work more than 40 hours a week and they all make ~200k with 5 yoe. Great for Madison WI. Tech stack does suck, however.
Glad your friends' experiences are exceptional. I know a woman working for Epic in the Madison area who miscarried due to work stress. Madison housing is also a lot less affordable these days, assuming you want to actually live in Madison and not a copy-paste Verona suburb w/ zero walkability:
I know locals like to complain about the beltline, but as someone who has driven in LA, SF, Chicago, NY, it is wild to compare it to any big city traffic.
It's not in the same league as LA, NY, or Chicago but definitely up there (albeit during shorter time windows) with Silicon Valley commuter traffic. Part of a common theme of living in Madison where you get downsides of city living- traffic, high taxes, high housing costs- without many upsides such as good public transport, a diversified job market, or a well-developed food scene.
https://captimes.com/news/madison-home-prices-increased-the-...
And living in Madison means commuting to Epic in Verona, which means contending with Beltline traffic just as bad as 280 during rush hour.