Penny Wyatt

Fresh out of university and you get offered a job at Microsoft headquarters in the United States. Sounds like a fantasy, but it is reality for Penny Wyatt, who left for the US in September 2005.

The Honours graduate from the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney is one of a select few Australian IT graduates to be snapped up each year by the world's biggest software company to work at its Redmond, Washington hub.

"I can't go into much detail about it, but essentially I'll be doing software design engineering writing programs to test software under development," Penny said.

"My visa is valid until 2008. Maybe I'll be back before that, or maybe I'm in the States for the long haul."

Penny graduated in May with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Information Technology (BScIT) and a wealth of experience already to her credit, including nearly three years working with St Leonards-based content management software developer Forty Two International.

When choosing her course Penny admits she was going for the "geeky" end of the scale. "I was a lot less interested in the business-oriented side of IT than the full-on technical programming side," she said.

"There was a big range of electives to choose from which gave me the chance to do a sub-major in computer graphics and games technology. That has to be the most fun I've had in programming."

Although the world of games and graphics won't be the focus of her job at Microsoft, Penny says her skills give her the flexibility to move across boundaries.

"I'm not stuck in any particular compartment. Every company needs an IT department - really you can go anywhere."