londonmet,
IN your situation, I'd stay with the airline job untill you find a job on super-midsize or above. Ie, if the Citation we're talking about is an X, then it sounds reasonable. If it's a CJ or a II/B, then probably not worth the move.
It's a sad fact, but the smaller the aircraft, the smaller the profit margins, and the greater the temptation to apply pressure to the crew to make a profit - or break-even... Along the same lines, running a couple of CJs will probably not be enough to fund an Ops department, so you're on your own.
In the same vein, flight standards will vary, and management will quickly seize on your airline background and make that a point of critizism. Fact is, sticking with your airline standards might be what saves your a$$ one day - more than half the cowboys out there have no idea about SMS, PerfEng, CRM or their own Parts A through D. So you'll have to be very strict with yourself and run a very tight ship - and without any back-up or even appreciaton of what you're doing.
Add that to being DEC and you can see where this is heading. Sit tight and wait for the upturn - the good jobs will come back, and they're worth waiting for. If you've been with an operator of doubious repute, the move to the good job could become a lot harder than if you'd stayed with an airline.
Don't listen to people who say airline crew cannot make the transition, it just requires another frame of mind and a lot more hard work. Both groups (corp and 'line) have summat to teach one another - the corporates about thinking out-of-the-box and getting the job done, the airline guys about flight standards, SOPs and getting the job done while staying within the books and without hanging your proverbial out to dry
