If the heroes of the recent science fiction film Avatar showed up at a career fair, their blue skin might elicit a few stares.

But at the federal government's next fair, avatars are welcome.

The Public Service Commission is going virtual to recruit new people to join Canada's rapidly aging ranks of civil servants.

In September, they'll open an island on Second Life, an online universe that sees about 830,000 people wander hundreds of virtual communities each month.

The PSC's island will have information booths, presentations on jobs and a chance to interact live with current federal bureaucrats and ask questions.

"Yes, we're doing what we can do in the real world but there's an additional dimension we can add to this," said Marvin Bedward, director of project planning and innovation with the Public Service Commission of Canada.

Visitors will also be able to try-out what it's like to be a Canada Border Services agent doing a risk assessment.

For their part, the civil servants on the site will be given their own avatars, an online persona complete with wardrobe and accessories.

"We have quite a range of avatars," said Bedward.

"Tall, short and basically representing the ethnic composition of the country."

Bedward said the aim of the 12-week pilot study isn't to actually hire anyone but to test out virtual communities as a method to reach out to a different pool of potential candidates.

A similar career fair was set up by the Ontario government in 2008 and saw over 8,000 people stop by their island in the first year from around the world, with 80 per cent of the visitors under 35-years-old. It also featured simulations like firefighter training.

"This was a pioneering project for us and we're quite happy with it," said Michael Patton, a spokesperson for the government's Ministry of Government Services.

He was unable to say whether anyone was actually hired off the island nor how it compared to real-world career fairs run by the government. The project cost the Ontario government $24,700 to design and $318.20 a month to maintain.

While their project is technically over and under review, the island still exists. On a recent afternoon, it was devoid of signs of virtual life.

Companies like Amazon.com have also used Second Life as a hiring tool.

"One of the nice things about Second Life is you can be a Canadian living in France or Italy or in Hong Kong and come to the career fair," Bedward said.

"Yes, we're not always sure whether the person is a serious individual but even at regular career fairs you're not sure either."

The $50,000 project is being built in part by a design centre at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont., which maintains a second campus on Second Life.

While he applauded the federal government's efforts to take a virtual leap, social media consultant Walter Schwabe said there's a disconnect between their virtual and actual reality.

If they're recruited in a virtual world, candidates may think they're walking into a job where social media and new technologies will be firmly embedded in the workplace.

"The average government desktop doesn't have the juice to handle Second Life," said Schwabe, the CEO of Edmonton-based fusedlogic.

He said while most levels of government now have the desire to get involved in social media, pilot projects like the federal government's get run with little conversation about what the next step might be.

"They bolt social technologies and social activities on," he said.

"They don't bake them in to processes, they don't bake them into the culture, they don't bake them into the business objectives moving forward," he said.

Second Life opened in 2003, created by Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based company founded in 1999.

Residents own and build the digital infrastructure, including homes, stores, fantasy universes and more.

It even has its own economy. A blog post by the company suggests that in 2009, as the world's economic infrastructure was crumbling, theirs wasn't.

It grew to US$567 million in 2009, up 65 per cent from 2008.

The growth wasn't strong enough however to keep one Canadian company on the island.

Canada Post had bought virtual real estate in Second Life in 2007 and opened up a post office so Canadian users could ship products bought in virtual stores.

But with only 158 visitors per day, according to statistics in Marketing Magazine, it wasn't paying its way.

The post office closed in February.