Hi guys. I was hoping I could get some input/advice from some people who work or have worked in the video game industry. I'm currently a junior at a business school where I'm studying business administration with an emphasis on finance (basically a finance/investing degree). I've been an avid gamer since I was about 6, and getting into the video games industry has always been something that I thought would be cool, but up until recently it was always something that I felt like I shouldn't pursue due to outside influences.

I haven't been terribly interested in what I'm studying, and this summer I started asking myself if pursuing a career in finance was something that I really wanted to do. I'm still not sure exactly what the right thing for me to do is, but I have a passion for video games and I've decided that I'm going to take a semester off of school and try to get some degree of exposure in the video game industry. I know a little bit of html but beyond that I have no coding knowledge, and I've heard that QA can be a starting point for aspiring designers who lack a background in programming.

Getting to the point... I guess I'm just looking for some advice as to how to go about this. Is QA the right place to start for someone in my position? I would like to do something that will help me decide if game design is path that I'd like to pursue further or not, and I'd like to do something will allow me to develop and learn so that I can eventually make it into design.

So to put it simply:

Is QA a good starting point for aspiring designers with limited programming knowledge?

What are companies looking for in QA testers in terms of experience/credentials. I have some work experience and I've played a lot of games and played a lot of games competitively (not sure if that helps or not?).

Are there any other options besides QA that I should be considering?

What is the nature of QA jobs? I hear that they're mostly on a contract basis, does that essentially mean that once the game is released you're kind of done unless the company puts you on another project?

Really appreciate it guys.