Monster review: job board with resume tools and a paid plan

Monster is a job board with sites for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and several other European countries. Employers pay to post their jobs there. Job seekers search, apply and upload a resume for free, and can pay for extra tools.

Who Monster is for

Monster suits people looking for work across many occupations, from warehouse and driving jobs to nursing, sales and IT. Its resume builder helps if you need to write or update your resume. Keep a copy of your resume outside Monster, because downloading it from there is part of the paid plan.

What Monster offers

• Job search by title and place, and job alerts.
• Resume upload: recruiters search the resumes by title, place and skills and can contact you.
• Resume builder with templates, and a resume check that shows how applicant tracking systems read your resume.
• Quick Apply: apply with your Monster resume in a few clicks.
• Salary tools and career advice.
• Paid Premium plan: download your resume as a file, and have applications filled in for you with Expert Apply.

Who pays for what

Job seekers

Nothing for search, resume upload, resume builder and applying with your Monster resume. Premium costs a fee and adds resume downloads and filled-in applications

Employers

Pay per click within a daily budget, or a subscription that adds resume search

How to apply

Many employers let you apply on Monster with Quick Apply. Your Monster resume goes with the application, so there is nothing to upload. Other employers want you to apply on their own website. There you need your resume as a file, and downloading it from Monster needs the paid plan. Applying and uploading a resume need a free account.

Where the listings come from

Employers post their jobs on Monster and pay for them. By Monster's own account, a job promoted there is also published on CareerBuilder and on a network of partner job and news sites. So Monster is a source other sites take listings from, not a copy. The same job can therefore appear on several sites at once.