When I was in the highscool age I spend a lot of time building maps for Unreal Tournament, which was a very popular game back then. This also made me begin working with 3D modeling/animation tools like 3ds max. The final year I realized that 3D was the thing I really wanted to work with. To bad I didn't qualified for the game artist part of the "Computer games development" program, so I instead begun the "Game engine design" program, which I am very glad for. Coding is the shit
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The college had some programming projects where I participated during my last year, which also led me to a Swedish game company which offered me a job as a game programmer. I have now been working there for about 1.5 year, so I don't have very much experience in the industry, but I will give it a try to answer your questions anyway. Though I live in Sweden, I can only tell you about how it works here, and it might differ from US.
1. It will put you higher in the recruitment pile. But your skills and hobby projects will definitely weigh much.
2. Every company want people that have "Several years in the industry" and "Released at least two commercial games". But this is just what they want.
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5. Depends on your position. If your working as an engine coder you need strong C++ skills and understand assembly language. As a game programmer you will often use scripting languages like Python and Lua. But you should learn C++ well and it will be enough.
6. Can you code a game you can code other softwares too.
7. Show them that you have programming as one of your biggest hobbies. Write readable and documented code. Social competence is also very important though you have to work with a lot of different kinds of people like artists and designers.
8. Game programming is very fun, and you will work with different kinds of stuff every day. During the crunch periods you will not get much rest though. Long days and long weeks.
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10. Be forward and show them that you are the best!
If you want more information about being a game coder you should post in the
www.gamedev.net forums, where all game coders are. Have a nice day!
/Klarre
(You don't have to put my website link on your site)