I have a confession to make: I had no intension of instructing when I got my CPL ticket, I just looked at the FI job for hour building and I was quite nervous when starting my FI career that I was going the wrong way
However, I said to myself since my students are paying a lot of money for the lessons, then they deserve a dedicated and enthusiastic, professional instructor. I took my job very seriously and after taking a few highly motivated people from 0 hours to first solo and beyond and seeing them achieve their goals, my view on the FI job changed. I highly enjoy teaching people to fly and sharing my experience with others. I've set my standards high for all my students regarding stick and rudder skills and pride myself of producing high quality pilots.
Am I going to "jump ship" and leave my FI job for an airline job if I get the chance? Yes I will. Do I regret taking the FI route? No I don't and I wouldn't want to trade my FI-hours for anything else. I have found out that instructing is a very rewarding experience and hopefully I can pass my passion of flying on to my students