What is fun is mixing the two - going on contract with jet airliners. You get the training, the sims, you get to work for lots of operators in lots of countries - on a few occasions we have started their airlines for them, got them running, and then left them to carry on with it.
Some operators it's pure airline, they wet lease you and you are just an extension of their airline and everything is done for you, others want you to be, as 18left said 'the pilot, loadmaster, check in,engineer,dispatch,cabin crew,ops control,ticketing agent,cleaner,ground servicing agent,ramp coordinator, catering supervisor and sometimes even a.t.c.' which is challenging and you get to learn a lot.
The upside is, you get to operate in many different areas, including some of the nastier places on the planet like Afghanistan, Sudan & Iraq, so its not boring, we've operated from dirt strips, tin-pot 'airports', do lots of spiral approaches, VFR stuff one day in some strip in the Congo a few days later IFR into DXB or JNB maybe. The downside is, it's still a contract job and you're away from home but as far as forming great friendships with the other crews who you spend a lot of time with, and good, sometimes challenging flying, it can't be beaten
