If its money you're after -- straight to the airline. If you want to learn to fly properly, to build experience through experiences, to have fun, to have some great times worth speaking about, to fly for the joy of flying - go airlines later.
I've been in bars with crews and everyone is relating the funny times - being vomited on in the territory, having to return because one passenger left a thong behind, flying deceased indigenous people back to their homeland and seeing the ceremony that ensues, being lost, landing on little islands no-one from your school has ever heard of etc etc etc. These all make great memories. And the cadets sitting with us?? Nothing, they got nothing.............never been upside down, vomited on, landed on wrong dirt strip..........
Its absolutely horses for courses, no right or wrong. My course is the path of a "proper" aviation career experience - and I don't consider flying ILS to ILS onto big sealed strips with the autopilot building its flying skills anything but a job. Thats my take on a good career.