Microsoft is again offering internships to Australian University students for the summer break. These are fully paid internships at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Washington. So yes this is an overseas internship, however all flights and accommodation are covered by Microsoft, and previous interns report that it quite often pays more than internships locally.

There are two available intern positions:

Software Design Engineer (SDE) Intern

Work at the Core of Every Product We Build
This internship is where the fun begins for code gurus like you. As a hands-on Software Design Engineer intern, you’ll learn how to make decisions about design and feature implementation, using your mastery of technical tools to help make a product vision a reality. If you would like to write code and design efficient data structures and algorithms to develop next-generation applications or operating systems, listen up. This internship shows you how SDEs bring products to life by working with Program Managers to ensure strong design and Software Design Engineers in Test to ensure quality through testing. Ultimately for the SDE, it’s your code that turns concepts into new technologies and services.

Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) Intern

Discover Life on the Last Line of Defense
As an intern Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET), you’ll own it, break it, fix it, and own it again. You’ll ensure a product’s quality by making sure it performs as users expect it to. Part of the fun is how creative you can be devising ways to manipulate, crush, and sabotage software into submission—while creating innovative testing technologies along the way. Ultimately, as an SDET intern it’s your input that can help make the difference between joy and frustration for the customers. Since you’re keen on how things work, and making them work better, you’ll work hand in hand with the Program Managers and Software Design Engineers to design, develop, and maintain automation systems for use in development and testing cycles. Using the tools you create, you’ll help pour over source code for trouble spots, debugging and isolating problems, and executing creative tests to find new bugs while regression testing recent fixes.

Both positions ask for a fluency in C/C++/C# and a passion for writing quality code using Computer Science fundamentals. You should be able to write and speak English at a functional level, and be able to relocate to Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Washington U.S.A for a period of 12 weeks. (3 months)

Further details are provided in the document which you can download below from Skydrive.

If you are interested, read through the document and send your resume to ausrec@microsoft.com by July 22. Please ensure your course details including graduation date are clearly stated, and specify past projects and technologies used in those projects.

This internship is intended for students in a minimum 4 year course, who are approximately 1 year from graduation. (e.g. If you are graduating in 2010, then now would be the perfect time to apply)

These internships are only provided to current students, and are one of the best ways to get a job at Microsoft after University, so if you are interested, I highly encourage you go to apply.