I read a pretty lengthy article about this a few months back... can't remember where, though. It was written by a female reporter, and she gave the impression that being female really helped (not much to do about that one). Living in the pacific northwest probably helps, too.

I dunno, man. The job described in the article sounded pretty boring and repetitive to me... although it does get your foot in the door.

Since you already have an end-date in mind (graduate school) it wouldnt be so bad to go for some QA, since there's the off chance of actually meeting a developer and starting to build a network. Typically when a company hires testers for the crunch phase of a project, they don't usually screen too heavily on experience or anything else. They're just looking for butts in seats and eyes on the game. I've seen college kids plucked up without so much as an interview.

If no company around you is crunching, they'll probably be looking for more permanent testers with experience so take a look at your nearby company's projects pages and see if you can find one with a game in the last 6 months of its development. A game publisher (as opposed to a developer) has a lot more going on and is probably hiring year round so watch out for that too. Your chances of meeting a developer are pretty much nil though in that case.

QA is filled with college kids working between heavy semesters and guys like who never really intend to make a career of it, but developer jobs are so hard to come by, they wait it out in QA. Try not to get yourself stuck there, spending all your time testing, none of it working on your craft. Thats pretty much what happened to me, I was supposed to be an artist, now I've been in QA for nearly 5 years and I'm much more likely to end up in production, if not a QA career.

Edit: I wanted to add that there are also QA engineer jobs and automated testing jobs that will usually include programming and might be a more direct path from QA to programming. I think those are usually at PC developers so I don't know much specfic about them. The job is sometimes also posted as "white box tester"

Thanks for the pointers. I didn't expect QA to become what it is now. Guess I should have asked "what is the best way to becoming a game designer." Or a more detailed question.

Right now I plan on heading to grad school and get my degree in cognitive science. I see psychology taking a more prominent role in game design these days, so the knowledge and experience in carrying out efficient experiments may come in handy. The nature of cognitive science will further improve my programming skills. The degree itself is a nice backup in case things don't work out.

During the months between now and grad school, I have options. The easiest one is to stay in school and take programming classes. I can get a temporary job locally. I can get a temporary job as a tester to earn the experience and network. Or I can get an internship. Which one do you guys think is the most beneficial for my purpose?

As an engineer basing this off the track to get into the energy industry, go internship.
People get groomed through internships throughout college and grad school and if you maintain the relationship it can lead to higher starting pay as well as all the other benefits.

Make sure you read the back articles on Gamasutra and Gamecareerguide.com to get some specific insight about what skills are needed or desired for a design position.

If you want to be a "game designer", you need to be something else first. Any current gen game might have 2-4 designers, and 60 to 100 people in other fields. If you're going to be a designer, you need to get there, and right now most companies are filled with talented level designers, programmers, and artists who might want the job as well, and have a proven track record in the field and a proven understanding of the development process. Basically you aren't going to walk from college into a designer position.

In my experience, the best way to get into a company is to work on a mod. Pick an area of expertise and really shine in that area. The mod doesn't need to be finished, or super polished, but your contribution needs to be clear and that part needs to show you have the skills necessary. I've known people from all disciplines get into professional development via mods. It's actually hard to assemble a decent team of folks and keep them together because they get hired out so frequently.

As mentioned above, testing can often be a death march and won't leave you with the time or energy to perfect your own craft. I'd really suggest that the best path is to pick an area of study that has a clear relationship to game development (programming with a focus on graphics or AI for example), while simultaneously using your spare time to actually design games. Or just spend the summer in your parents basement and start building levels for Counter Strike or UT3 or Team Fortress or something.

That didn't hurt Romero any did it...

Some years ago I was between jobs and I interviewed at Atari (fka Hasbro Interactive, Infogrames, MicroProse) for an entry level QA position. The job was offered to me but I turned it down. Here's why:

• 60 hours a week minimum during non-crunch cycles.
• 80 hours a week typical for crunch cycles.
• The money is terrible.
• The hiring manager asked me if I had a wife or family and did I enjoy spending time with them.
• Forget testing interesting games like Civilization or Unreal Tournament. Those are reserved for the few veterans who haven't yet burned out. For the first few years you're trying to break Blue's Clues and My Little Pony.