[mdn0420]

I'm a software engineer at a gaming company and have never worked as an 'Automation Tester' but have worked with them on my team so I can only speak from my observations.

You will write code and are encouraged to build well designed software. However, the problems you are addressing are slightly different and there will be less emphasis on writing quality software compared to writing production code (a bit ironic). On the other hand, you may get some exposure to the codebase in which you could learn from.

Knowing a particular language is handy but that is hardly ever my concern. Your goal should be to master software design principles. You want to know what patterns will make your solution the most performant, maintainable, reusable, etc. With that in mind, pick whatever path will teach you that the fastest.