Tarmach - I did my IR in Nov 1999 when I had 1,000hrs under my belt - it was shortly afterwards that I went to Jerez.
The advantage was that I found the IR manageable - I had been flying every day 6 days a week all year and often in proper IMC... Hence I did the multi rating and the IR training in 17.3 hrs TT. And I am in no way Gods gift to aviation but I did pass first time. At nearly £300 per hr its a damn good job too!
I spent that year teaching PPLs teaching myself a lot of the IR. Once you've got a bit of capacity as an FI then you can quite fairly use some of the airborne time practicing things yourself... e.g. Qualifying cross country into Filton allowed me watch an ILS indication whilst Bloggs flew visually, basic radio aid nav work whilst Bloggs is under the hood and we are above or in cloud, got a PPL checkout in a new higher perfomance club a/c - good opportunity to keep your own unusual attitude instrument recoveries up to sheen...
If done carefully you are not depriving the student of any of the time that they are paying for.
As for the desk job - I did a degree in Psychology and Management of the Human Resource. I got one of the very very few local jobs completely unconnected with sheep
working as the Training & Development Officer for an electronics firm hosting circa 1,000 employees locally. It was a good job in many ways - not least was the reality check of working with people from the shop floor and seeing up close and personal their working lives/loves/aspirations/frustrations. It helps keep you grounded when you get tempted into Olympic sized company whinging conversations on the flightdeck as you blast out of Nice over the sunset illuminated Alps sipping coffee...
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