Interesting comment about instructing "being a stepping stone". Not strictly true in the UK. In the US, yes, instructing is a stepping stone (no-one does it for more than 18 months), once you get 1,000 hours there are LOADS of entry level turbine jobs (Alaska, Gulf, Vegas).
Over here in the UK it's not like that. You can be stuck being an FI well into 2,000+ hours if the operator doesn't give you much turbine work.
The sad fact of the UK is that you need turbine time and/or an JAA IR to earn a decent salary and get treated well. Five years ago all you needed was around 1,000 hours to get a turbine job, these days the goalposts have changed. And there are TONS of ex-mil people getting out at the moment, with big fat logbooks full of twin-time, and IRs paid for out of the property boom.