Pretty straightforward process. Met with the recruiter, then the hiring manager, and lastly, an 8 person panel that consisted of a mix of the business area I'd be supporting and peers.
Overall, it was a mostly positive experience. I applied back in October and first met with the recruiter in late November. Epic takes an extended holiday break and doesn't hold interviews a week before that period or a week after that period. It's not ideal for the candidate experience as it extended my interview timeline by a full month, but it is a great perk for their employees.
During that time, the hiring manager and recruiter changed. I didn't care as much about the recruiter changing, but that initial conversation that I had with the original hiring manager felt like a throwaway since I wasn't sure if the final decision factored in that conversation. Additionally, I didn't have an opportunity to meet one-on-one with the new hiring manager, although he was part of the interview panel. However, the new hiring manager did take the time to respond to my follow-up thank you email with great detail which was awesome.
I'm not a big fan of 2 on 1 interviews (on either side of the table), let alone 4 of them back to back. The format didn't allow for a very fluid conversation as some of the interviewers were concerned about their counterparts getting time to ask questions. The recruiter emphasized during our prep call that it was going to be "conversational" but it was quite the opposite.
The panel took two weeks to make a decision, but during that time my recruiter was super responsive. However, the decision email I received did come from their ATS, which felt a bit impersonal given the amount of time invested in the process. Unsurprisingly, I asked for feedback and did not receive a response to my email.
My take is that if you're not coming from Blizzard, Riot, or another gaming company, your probability of getting hired drops significantly. It's clear that Epic has a very "fraternal" mindset and likes to keep a majority of their hires to industry folks. Secondly, and while I realize this is not exclusive to Epic Games, my interview panel was quite homogenous, but I feel that's unfortunately a product of the gaming industry in general.
Epic seems like an interesting and fun place to work and they are taking some big bets. They really care about making sure the person they are bringing in is the right fit (the role I interviewed for had been posted since September 2024).