Bend man develops character assessment tool to benefit job seekers and employers

(Update: Adding video, comments from Creator)

'The work force has become so data driven that there’s a loss of understanding about who the human is,' Jensen remarks.

BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- Josh Jensen is a Bend resident who has created a character assessment tool to essentially find a diamond in the rough in the job hunt.

The tool is called CharacterID and is intended to match up job-seekers with the right employers.

Jensen spent about 17 years hiring, recruiting and training individuals and teams in a variety of businesses including financial services and retail. In doing so, he would heavily utilize virtual platforms to find his client base- that’s when he recognized the major problem in online recruiting sites.

"I’d use these keyword search filters, like the ZipRecruiters and the Indeeds of the world and it was frustrating!" Jensen said Thursday. "If I scheduled 10 interviews on the internet, on average, half would no-show or cancel at the last minute. The other half that did show up, quite honestly, I sometimes wish they hadn’t because they did not seem to match what their resume suggested."

Years later, after being negatively impacted by Hurricane Mariah when he and his family lived to Puerto Rico, Jensen found himself on the opposite end of the online job search when he moved back to the States. He sent his resume to several employers, only to receive continual rejections. After his 73rd automated rejection email, stating that his resume was inadequate for a job he was beyond qualified for, he knew something had to change.

“All those years as a hiring manger, helping to run companies, looking for talent, looking for really good people, what I didn’t really understand is that people on the other side of the equation are equally as frustrated with the way employers filter,” Jensen said.

He started developing CharacterID three years ago to cross-examine people’s tops character traits with the core values of companies.

“We measure and score 18 different character attributes, and they have an opportunity to display their top six strengths to potential employers using our resume builder," Jensen said. "On the employer side, it gives employers the opportunity to specifically search for and filter potential employees based on character attributes that more closely align with the culture they’re trying to create.” 

Some of the qualities included in the list of 18 are: Integrity, Grit, Situational Awareness, and Emotional Maturity. CharacterID is a peer review platform where an applicant chooses people to score their qualities. The more people evaluate an applicant's character, the stronger their CharacterID score, and the more accurate an applicant's top attributes are. 

Jensen said the evaluation takes just two minutes. Presently, he and his team are ready to test it out.

“Right now, we’re in MVP stage, we’re beta-testing," Jensen said. "We’re currently looking for potential strategic partners, potential seed funding to really get us to the next level."

Jensen points out that "the work force has become so data-driven that there’s a loss of understanding about who the human is, which is ultimately what matters." With CharacterID, he said, he’s bridging the gap between using technology and getting a true picture of who the applicants are.