From Papamoa to Washington, former Te Puke High School student Gabe Young will take up a position with Microsoft at the end of the year.
After finishing his four-year Bachelor of Computer Science, Mr Young will leave for Seattle, where he'll be writing testing software for the computer giant.
"Later I expect I'll
specialise, working as a part of team, perhaps on maps or hotmail," Mr Young said.
He was offered a job as a software development engineer after five hours of intensive interviews in Sydney.
"It was gruelling. I had the five one-hour interviews back to back. Different people gave me different problems to solve. When they finished, I only had to wait about 10 minutes before they offered me a job. They expect you to decline or accept on the spot."
He said a summer internship at Google prepared him well for the interviews.
And living in the States means the world lightweight blokart champion won't have to travel far to defend his title with the next champs being held in Las Vegas. "I'll only have to travel inter-state this year which makes a change," Mr Young said.
Te Puke High School principal Alan Liddle started after Mr Young left the school in 2007 but said he had heard all about him. He said Mr Young was a top student, receiving various awards while at the school for academic and extracurricular activity.
The Waikato University student received a Distinguished Performance Award at the New Zealand University Blues presentation in Wellington recently. The awards celebrate students who excel at the pinnacle of their sport while also succeeding at university.
