If you follow me on LinkedIn, you probably know me as “the iCIMS guy.

iCIMS, like most major SaaS platforms, has a robust marketplace of partners. Part of that ecosystem includes formal referral arrangements—an entirely normal and widely accepted practice in the software world. Consultants refer customers to trusted tools and, in return, receive a percentage of the deal. It’s clean, standard, and transparent.

And yet, I chose not to go down that path.

Not because there’s anything wrong with it—but because I wanted to remove even the possibility of doubt.

As someone deeply embedded in the iCIMS space—and extremely vocal about it—I didn’t want anyone wondering whether I was recommending a product because it was the best fit, or because it came with a financial incentive. Some people think this is overly principled. Maybe it is. But it’s the line I’ve drawn.

That stance became even more important as other vendors began reaching out. Over the years, I’ve been approached by multiple non-iCIMS vendors offering referral deals, sponsorships, co-marketing opportunities, and influencer-style partnerships. The offers varied, but the core ask was the same: use my platform and my voice to promote their product—often without ever implementing it, administering it, or seeing how it performed in real-world TA operations.

And I just couldn’t do that.

Not because I don’t like money—but because I’m a consultant first. My job is to serve clients and the System Admin Insights community of 300+ TA Ops professionals who trust me to be clear, candid, and unbiased.

So instead of following the industry playbook, I built my own.

A New Kind of Consulting Model

This approach—no vendor funding, AI-powered research, and real-world practitioner input—is my attempt to define a more ethical, more empowering model for giving software advice.

Here’s how it works:

• No Kickbacks
  I accept zero referral fees or vendor compensation. I’ve made this public, and I stand by it.

• AI Deep Research
  I use ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature to gather and analyze publicly available information. This isn’t a gut-check or an opinion. It’s structured synthesis of everything the internet knows—from vendor documentation and review sites to Reddit threads, analyst reports, and user feedback. ChatGPT’s Deep Research mode takes 5–10 minutes to run and scours a much wider set of sources than typical chatbot interactions. It’s not something most users even realize exists, but it’s available to all ChatGPT Plus users and allows you to run real research at scale in a fraction of the time it would take a human analyst.

• Community Input
  I supplement AI research with insights from the System Admin Insights community—300+ iCIMS power users and TA ops professionals who live inside these tools every day. (Soon, you’ll see more formal user panels and feedback loops integrated into our work.)

Try It Yourself

In every vendor comparison article on our blog, you’ll find a link to the original ChatGPT Deep Research output, complete with citations and source links.

But in this article, I’m going a step further.

At the bottom of this page, I’ve included the exact prompt I engineered to generate the research on iCIMS vs. the other ATSs—so you can run it yourself, customize it for your industry, company size, integration needs, and decision criteria, and see what comes back.

Even if you never read our writeups, I hope this inspires you to take a more rigorous, transparent approach to evaluating vendors. You don’t need to rely solely on Gartner quadrants, analyst briefings, or Reddit threads. You can become your own analyst.

I’ll keep publishing these reports. I’ll keep standing by what I see in the data. And yes—I’ll keep talking about iCIMS. Because across every solution I’ve evaluated, it continues to punch above its weight. Especially when it’s administered by someone who knows how to unlock its full potential.

But most importantly, I’ll keep doing this my way:
No kickbacks. No shortcuts. No compromises.

Check Out the Research

👉 Browse the iCIMS vs. HCMs library

👉 Browse the iCIMS vs. other ATSs library

👉 Browse the ATS-Adjacent Tools library

Let me know what you find.

Do Your Own Research

Curious how to use ChatGPT for serious research—not just quick answers?

This screen recording shows exactly how I used ChatGPT to build a detailed, source-backed comparison of iCIMS and SmartRecruiters, two major applicant tracking systems used by mid-market and enterprise TA teams. No narration. Just the raw workflow—prompts, outputs, edits, and all.

🧠 Try it yourself: Below is the exact prompt I used. Copy, paste, and customize it for your own ATS comparisons.

Want more like this?

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