Out Of The Cubicle, Into The WorldOut Of The Cubicle, Into The World

More and more people are abandoning technology careers in the United States to volunteer in developing nations.

The Peace Corps has seen a 17% spike in the number of applications received from across the country this year compared with 2001. The government-sponsored volunteer organization notes that it's seeing heightened interest from layoff epicenters San Francisco and Seattle.

Applications began to pick up in the San Francisco Bay area in spring 2001, around the same time the economy began to dive and Internet companies started to collapse. But not all tech volunteers are laid-off dot-commers. Some are opting out of the private sector voluntarily. "Folks in IT say they feel disconnected from people," says Errin Byrd, a regional recruiter at Seattle Peace Corps. "A lot of the people who look at IT work in Peace Corps want to see how their knowledge can be useful to another culture."