The biggest red flag I’ve read is that the critiques are form letters. They will even critique their own, The Ladders generated, resumes! It’s a simple process that a salesperson goes through to make a sale, not a real resume critique that a professional resume writer would give.
In other words, it seems they hardly even look at the resume… they just get you back a scary letter saying how bad your resume sucks, and that they can make it shine like new. Scare tactics. I’m sure it’s done well for them.
Laurie Smith, another professional resume writer, commented on a blog post by Nick Corcodilos (the post was about The Ladders of course). She writes:
What really amuses me is that I began to notice an eerie similarity among all of these reviews and found that they followed a basic script and consisted of boilerplate with only minor variations, regardless of the widely differing resumes that were critiqued. Virtually all critiques started with a comment about the resume lacking “The WOW factor,” which ironically is exactly the basis upon which my resumes consistently receive praise. They invariably said that the resume had few action words and used passive voice–both demonstrably untrue assertions. The criticisms were so unjustified as to raise any normal person’s blood pressure.
There are 99 comments on this blog post (to date) so make sure check it out: The dope on TheLadders
So just in case you’re sending in a resume to the Ladders for a critique. I suggest you send in a few different versions. Change the name, the companies, etc, and then compare what you get back. You’ll see what we saw. An impersonal long winded critique trying to get their hands on your hard earned money.
She continues…
If your phone is ringing for interviews, then the resume is doing its job. It doesn’t matter what I think, or the Ladders. Leave it alone and don’t change a thing.
Here’s a blog post I found from Information Security Leaders:
Got a call the other day from a friend of mine who is currently in between positions, and he told me that he was on The Ladders, and had applied for a resume critique. After submitting his resume, he was sent an e-mail from a resume reviewer that basically dissected his resume and provided him with some high level generic feedback.
It continues…
As you read on The Ladders critique instructs the candidate to “go back and reread your resume, and you will see that this document is selling you short. The bottom line: Your resume simply does not reflect your professional caliber at all. You have an excellent background…you have the qualifications…but you are just not making that first impression count.”
THIS STATEMENT IS PATRONIZING AT BEST. I ALWAYS APPRECIATE A GOOD BACKHANDED COMPLIMENT.
A blogger (”jobmom”) on talentrevolution.net writes:
But then I got an email that made me laugh. A LOT. And OUT LOUD. Just as an experiment, I submitted by resume to the good people at theladders.com for review.
The post continues…
Well, the reviewer from The Ladders had something else in mind. She wanted to instill the fear of God in me, so that I’d pay the small price of $695 for someone to “completely rewrite” and “completely reformat” my resume so that it looks “more executive.”
When you receive your resume, you’ll find that you wrote it. Yep… about 95% of the text on your $600+ resume is taken directly from: your old resume (which mind you was ripped to shreds during the resume critique), your worksheet, and your responses to the phony “follow-up” questions.
Marc Cenedella has quite a racket going… dupe people on a job search into spending over $600 for the privilege re-writing their OWN resume. To be fair, the website appears to be honest and provide a valuable service — but the resume writing aspect of The Ladders is nothing but a SCAM!!!
TheLadders.com Reviews
If you are looking for reviews on TheLadders.com resume service, here are some blog posts I found to help you:
Jason Alba from JibberJobber.com writes:
You can read the rest here: The Ladders Scam
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Laurie Smith, another professional resume writer, commented on a blog post by Nick Corcodilos (the post was about The Ladders of course). She writes:
There are 99 comments on this blog post (to date) so make sure check it out: The dope on TheLadders
Also, check out Liars at TheLadders (also written by Nick Corcodilos).
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Susan Geary writes:
She continues…
You can read the whole post here: Resume Critiques and the Ladders.com
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Here’s a blog post I found from Information Security Leaders:
It continues…
You can read the rest here: Career Advice – Beware the $700 Resume
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A blogger (”jobmom”) on talentrevolution.net writes:
The post continues…
You can read here entire post here: Frustrated!…and Amused: Day 19 Since Layoff
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Susan Ireland, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Resume, wrote an informative blog post about the process of joining The Ladders. One of her readers posted this comment:
You can see that comment (as well as others) posted here: Posting a Resume on The Ladders
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If you’d like to learn more, you can do a few Google searches to help you find more reviews of The Ladders:
Update 7/3/2009: I found a few more amusing blog posts about TheLadders.com:
I cannot possibly recommend The Ladders to anyone.