Once upon a time, iCIMS was an amazing place to work. Once Vista Equity Partners took over the majority stake in shares, everything that resembled the previous iCIMS has been stripped away. What remains today is a company where leadership’s actions reflect their true interests: lining their own pockets. Leadership does not have any interest in the wellbeing of their employees. You know, the people who built the iCIMS reputation for what it is today.
• Lack of Direction - CEO Steve Lucas and senior leadership at iCIMS have a severe lack of strategic vision. There is one goal: increasing ARR to form the “perception” that iCIMS is a company worth buying. This word “perception” is thrown around a lot at iCIMS. You will shoot yourself in the foot many times over the course of trying to achieve this goal because of a systemic lack of strategy and focus. This schizophrenic path is costing iCIMS more and more as time goes on. Employees are burnt out and are becoming less invested in their work, great people are leaving in troublesome quantities, quality of life at iCIMS is deep in the red, process inefficiencies and disorganization have become the norm… and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
• Greedy – iCIMS leadership refuses to invest in the people on the ground who keep the lights on and the company running day to day. Employees do not get any equity options in iCIMS, despite Leadership grinding everyone below them to dust trying to achieve goals which are unattainable. Moving jobs to Colorado or India are ways that iCIMS Leadership says they need to “cut costs”. On the contrary, leadership will splurge large sums of money to increase the valuation of iCIMS so potential suitors will be attracted to buying the company. These wreck less costs include: paying high-profile celebrities to attend online events (celebrities who have nothing to do with tech/HR/Talent Acquisition); Steve Lucas forcing the purchase of a large piece of software in a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” type of deal with an enterprise company, then expecting that software to be implemented in unrealistic timelines; hiring more and more C-level executives/VPs/ board members who are part of the “Steve Lucas fan club” but denying overworked teams any actual head count that is needed (the last thing iCIMS needs is more “thinkers”).
• Lipstick on a pig - Leadership will attempt to brand iCIMS and themselves as "moving fast and being flexible". But anyone can see the reality of these words is truly more along the lines of "hyper-rushed, indecisive and disorganized". Even worse, nobody is help accountable for these awful decisions, which would normally cost someone their job in another company. Which brings me to my next point…
• Irony of Accountability - Up and down the chain there is seemingly no reprimanding of those who cause any harm or wrongdoings at iCIMS (whether that harm is intentional or not). This is particularly ironic since “Accountability” is a core company value on the iCIMS website, also boasted by the executives.
