Caledonian Gaz:
Its as BLEAK as you want it to be, do the yards, get the RIGHT ticks in the right boxes, ie get an instructor rating ONLY if you wish to persue instructing as a career.
Basically in my opinion utilise your training to set you up for the job, for example if you wish to persue the charter environment then generally up north is the go. So, while you are training, do some of it in a cessna 210 as this is more than likely what you will fly up there, thus when you arrive up north you have what the employer wants. They don't just want a basic CPL, they want (would prefer) a Basic CPL with some experience in what they operate.
It is pretty common for employers to recieve CV's without this experience, and sometimes they have no choice but to employ the person, and give them extra training on type on the job
DO IT RIGHT FROM THE START, BE PREPARED AND STAND OUT FROM THE REST