I got a C-Cat instructor ratng in NZ end of 2003, did enough instructing to get out of direct supervision by the following March. Unfortunately there was no work available so ended up with a job in flight operations a few months later. I managed to find a part-time instructing job a few months into the op's job which only got me about 100 hours a years, just enough to keep current.
Flight op's was good fun, learnt alot, met some interesting people and made good contacts. I did the job for almost 4 years and left recently because it was becoming very boring and there was no flying job in sight. So, I went back to instructing full-time and now have over 1200 hours total time and about 800 instructing.
I wouldn't recommend it if you want to be a pilot. It can be a dead-end job.
My 2 cents worth anyway
