Breaking in from a QA angle

First off before I start; the people running this site, are you aware that the read me first FAQ has a bunch of dead links? Only one of the first set of links to FAQs worked. Sorry if I'm the nth person to point this out, just saying

OK.
So. Its long been my dream to get into game development, I spent my childhood dreaming up games, yadda, yadda.
Rather than being some naiive dreamer though now I'm an adult I'm seriously trying to get into the industry.
I've a bachellor degree in computer science and am in my last year of a masters in HCI.
Programming isn't really my forte (though I can program somewhat) and art wise I've always sucked but I've found I have a rather good eye for mistakes and good design and all that sort of thing.

So, if its the games industry I'm going into its from a QA angle. Some queries here though.

1: Do QA people have any chance of advancment? Sure there's the tester grunts and then the lead QA people but beyond that. Have any of the big cheeses ever come from this side of things and then worked their way into design after many years or are they all programmers done good?

2: How does one crack a job?
Looking through offered jobs I see something recurring; they're all asking for past experience. Its a bit of a catch 22 reeally. 2 years is often the key thing asked for, even outside of games and in more general usability work. You need a minimum of 2 years experience but how do you get this without getting a job first? 2 years would be an awful long time just for internships... I've been in uni long enough I really can't keep being a financial leech on the state and my parents...

Any general advice and whatnot also appreciated.
One particular worry I have is that I am too 'middling qualified'; from what i've read most base level testers are just qualifcationless folks who happen to love games and get paid minimum wage. Meanwhile as I've mentioned the higher up games testers have years of experience and the like. I am feeling I am overqualified for the former but very underqualified for the latter.... Games are not my only possiblity for work after school of course but they would be my favoured field (by far).
Oh. Amd I'm Europe based. Most things I find seem to be rather American.