cubnut
I think the comments about the usefulness of instructing are minority views based on ignorance.
The fact is that Eagle and Air Nelson prefer air trasport time over instructing. That is not to say that instructing is worthless, but particularly with respect to Multi IFR time, ATO experience developes hands on skill and operational awareness. The flipside of this is that instructors tend to have better legal and proceedural groundings (ie they fly better holding patterns).
Either way I wouldn't worry too much as the shortage of suitably qualified pilots at the moment means that none of the airlines can be too picky - Air Nelson wouldn't even look at anyone with less than 100 hours air transport for a Saab job untill recently (I think this is a requirement of part 121 - but they are able to get individual dispensations from the CAA, and do).
IMO it is best to have a mixture of instructing and air transport experience, this also makes it easier to transition into check and training further down the track.