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CIA Retools Web Site in Recruitment Push
Officials in charge of hiring realized they needed a new plan. They hired an ad agency, TMP Worldwide, to help.
The "Bug Spot" was born. A snooping dragonfly zooms through the ad, showing how scientists at the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology develop their James Bond-esque devices _ "technology so advanced, it's classified," the ad boasts.
  Actor Daniel Craig from Great Britain, left, and Satsuki Mitchell, right, pose for the photographers prior to the Germany premiere of the James Bond movie 'Casino Royale' in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) (Michael Sohn - AP) 
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The ad debuted on the Discovery Channel. The agency got 3,500 resumes shortly afterward from people who said they were applying after seeing the spot.
An ad for the National Clandestine Service, the agency's secret operatives, followed soon after.
Now, the CIA is redoing its Web site. It is buying space on airport billboards and in movie trailers. It is taking out ads in publications from The Locksmith Ledger to Women's Wear Daily to Arab Times, seeking people who can crack locks, create disguises and speak polished Arabic. It is reaching out to soon-to-be retired military officers.
The CIA also created its updated personality quiz, with a special disclaimer straight from the legal department: "The Myths Quiz is for educational entertainment purposes only. ... This quiz will not affect your ability to get a job with the CIA."
The lawyers are not the only ones who don't take the quiz lightly.
Some of the CIA's traditionalists fear the agency is tarnishing its proud, exclusive roots to meet the presidential directive. They worry that the CIA quiz and its advertisements during "MythBusters" and other cable shows with cult followings are too gimmicky.
In short, they worry that the agency is sacrificing quality to get quantity. Last year alone, the agency received 135,000 applications _ a number that has more than doubled since Sept. 11, 2001.
Tom McCluskey, the CIA's chief of hiring and employee development, heard the concerns firsthand at a recent gathering of the Florida chapter of the agency's retirees association.
"Some of the old-timers grumbled, 'Where's the mystique? Where is the aura of mystery around what we do?'" McCluskey said in an interview. "The good news is that we are not seeking to hire those people."
Instead, he said, the CIA is after the generation that has grown up on the Web. "They were born with ear buds in their ears. They are ADD and it is contagious," he said, referring to attention deficit disorder. "We need that kind of talent here."
The CIA once did have a test that steered applicants to one of the agency's three main divisions: the National Clandestine Service, the Directorate of Science and Technology or the Directorate of Intelligence. But officials scrapped it after figuring out that it was often wrong.
A new test that could steer applicants to one of more than 200 jobs is now being devised for use during the screening process. But developing it is taking time.
Meanwhile, Congress is watching the agency's recruitment efforts. The incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has said one of his priorities is investigating whether the CIA has the right people in the right jobs and ensuring the CIA has enough people who are fluent in crucial foreign languages.
Even if Congress starts grilling the agency in public, odds are it could help. Generally speaking, said Betsy Davis, deputy chief of the CIA's recruitment and advertising, "We see spikes in applicants after bad stories. We see spikes in applicants after good stories."
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