[fekberg]

For what it's worth, Google has an office in Sydney (AFAIK this is where Google Maps was born).

Have you considered looking at a Working Holiday? This will allow you to stay and work in Australia for 1 year, 6 months per employer and can be extended to two years if you work on a farm for a little while. It's also easier to get a sponsored working visa (457, for 4 years) in Australia than in US.

Have a look at http://internships.com.au/ there's a bunch of good information on it!

[malpiatko]

The problem with big companies such as Google who have offices in Australia is that they just ignore your application or will direct you to the European recruiter. Thank you for the info about Working Holiday, I will indeed check it out.

[MichaelCrawford]

Snail-mail them a dead-tree cover letter and resume on good-quality, high cotton content paper.

Google's jobs site provides the postal addresses of many of their local offices. I don't know about Australia but many of their addresses are there. Also, they ran Want Ads in the San Jose Mercury News - scads of them.

I expect this is because Google doesn't work through third-party recruiters. That would cost billions, maybe tens of billions in commissions.

in you cover letter, maybe in your own handwriting on the back of the envelope, point out that you really do want to live in Australia, and hope to do so by working for the likes of Google.

[jpatokal]

Google Sydney's internships are indeed primarily intended at students in Australian universities. However, if you apply for a full-time job that's specifically listed as open in Sydney, and you get it, Google will pay relocation costs:

https://www.google.com/about/careers/search?jl=Sydney,Austra...

Disclaimer: I applied to work at Google Sydney, got the job, and was relocated. (From Melbourne, mind you, but there are people here from all over the globe.)

[fekberg]

Yeah, I can imagine that. They're probably overloaded with applications from all over the world (at any given office).

There are a lot of good tech companies in Australia! Good luck and let me know if you got any questions, I've been down here for almost 2 years on a sponsored working visa, it's lovely and not nearly as deadly as rumored :)