TGG, I know what you mean, where I am doing it alone there are half a dozen pilots doing the FIR and some are ex Macair Saab and Metro Captains.
Having a chat to a mate of mine who is a CFI of a prominent eastern states flying school today and what he said was pretty interesting. The 1000+ hour guys who are coming through along with the ex turbo prop guys are not really what he is after. He knows as soon as things pick up again they'll be gone like a flash and as such, would much prefer to take the young blokes and build them up knowing he'll have them most likely until they are grade 1's with META and perhaps beyond.
So if you can get a rating done at a school who will give you work and offer progression onto ME IFR training then I'd stick it out if the work is there. I instructed, and I didn't like it that much at first but once I was up there sharing my love of flying with someone who wanted to learn, and was just as passionate as me....... well I kind of got a bit of a kick out of it. I look back now on instructing as some of the most rewarding flying I have done and also some of the scariest and most challenging. Instructing might be a lot of circuits, but charter will start off as a lot of bungles
Hope you make the right decision mate!
GG