Does a flight engineer cert. make you a more competitive candidate? A better pilot?

[uswc45]

I'm in the military and I've got an opportunity to become a flight engineer or get out of the military. I think becoming an FE will give me a greater technical knowledge, therefore; I'll be a better pilot. My goal is to become an airline pilot so I want to know if you think it's worth my time or should I just focus on becoming a pilot. I'm thinking I would have an easier time finding a pilot job with a FE certificate. Am I right? If it were up to you, would you rather hire a pilot with a flight engineer certificate or does it really matter?

[Intruder]

In the past, major airlines would only hire pilots with FE certificates (or at least the written exam completed). However, these days there are few commercial airliners that require FEs any more, so I doubt they put nearly as much importance on it.

If getting the FE rating will delay your pilot certs, I'd forget about it. If not, it couldn't hurt...