This is a very difficult question that cannot fit into a neat few paragraphs answer, first of all the aviation world that exists today is very different than the one I grew up when I was getting my hours, second the expat pilots world is very different than the one that existed only a couple of years ago. Aviation is very fluid and dynamic, everyone is talking about the upcoming hiring at the majors and how many pilots will be hired yadda, yadda! But can we really guarantee that this will be the case? When I got hired at my first major job, if you would have told me that I would be in Japan working contract work, I would have told you that you were delusional, after all, back then the economy was booming and the mainline carriers were hiring hundreds every month, there is no way you can foresee how things will turnout in your career, sure, the main goal should be to get hired at your career job and have a ten minute commute with 18 days a month, but to try to predict what path will give you the more stability is silly on all itself since there is no stability in this business.
As a pilot you should try to get the golden ticket and go with the career job, but whom the hell knows what that is? You never expected Eastern and Pan Am to go down and you certainly never expected that an operator of a few Falcons flying freight would become the FedEx of today.
I am in that situation today as a matter of fact, my son is talking pilot, what I tell him is that he should forge a strong criteria of what he would consider acceptable and unacceptable, form his character around those values and forge ahead with whatever the industry throws at him without compromising those values. The rest is just luck and timing, anyone that claims what path would be best for a young aspiring pilot is basing it on what they would like this industry to be, not the unpredictable and heartless career it is.