FBI Tries E-RecruitingFBI Tries E-Recruiting

If IT job candidates won't come to Langley, Va., the Federal Bureau of Investigation is ready to meet them on their own turf. The FBI has signed up for a six-month stint with a new recruiting service from TopCoder Inc., a startup that gives programmers and software developers the opportunity to test their coding skills against peers in online competitions.

The bureau will post jobs to TopCoder's membership of more than 20,000 student and professional programmers. FBI recruiters can access profiles that detail an applicant's performance in online competitions versus his or her peers. The agency also can view the source code candidates use to solve problems.

While resumés can be misleading, TopCoder lets organizations see the work that applicants are capable of, says Charlene Li, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Employers can post 15 jobs as part of a three-month plan and up to 50 jobs in an annual plan. Fees range from $3,000 to $10,000.