The Ladders is one of the only job search sites we reviewed that required users to submit personal contact information and create an account before they were able to even see the jobs. Also, job seekers are immediately taken to a page where the Ladders asks for credit card information so it can charge them for its Premium Membership. Although users can continue through with the free service without providing this information, the option to do so is only visible when they scroll to the bottom and see "Continue with Basic Account." After the initial filters of job title, location and salary range, there are no further filters to refine the search. However, with the advanced search feature, users can add experience level and industry. The Ladders allows job seekers to upload their resume as a Word doc or PDF, and also has a resume-building engine.

More robust features like resume optimization tools, application monitoring and updates, and company profiles are only available with the Premium plan.

The process for setting up job alerts is much more cumbersome with the Ladders than most of the other job search sites we evaluated. In order to receive notifications, users must first do a search and then make sure to save that search the first time it is performed. Job seekers can save up to 10 searches in total. The Ladders then automatically sends the results to their email inbox. Beyond this, the service does not appear to have any other ways to customize the frequency or relevance of notifications.

The Ladders has a D- with the BBB and a 4.0 rating on Trustpilot. Bad reviews overwhelmingly cite spam as the cause. Also, customers routinely complain that they continue to receive email job notifications, even when they have unsubscribed multiple times. The Ladders' Premium service can be purchased in 1,3,6, and 12 month blocks, but be aware that they charge the entire amount of the term upfront.