Thanks Nosey, that's good to know.
Ok, so what would also be useful to know is how many burgers and fries you had to log before you got your first instructing job, and then subsequent jobs with Mountain Air / Air Nelson / CX etc?
And how many flying hours did you have before you didn't have to serve burgers and fries anymore?
Eagle206, I would have throught that with 400 hours you would be in the ballpark for a job with the likes of Mountain Air, GBA, Air Safaries etc. A few years ago the GA operators would have had 1000+ hour instructors to pick from. Well, they still do, but they're all scared that the 1000+ hr guys and girls are going to do a few hundred multi IFR hours and bugger off to Eagle, Origin or Nelson. Which is a justified concern. So with 400 hours you may well be more attractive to them than a 1000 hour pilot because you will be more likely to stay for 1-2 years.
And pay heed to mattyj's words of wisdom above!