cubdriver,
crewdawg is right about there being a ton of non-CFI jobs out there that hire at less than 500 TT. you just have to look around. i wrote about aerial survey a few times on this forum... many of the guys i know at my company and other survey companies got hired at 250 TT, fresh out of college (i myself got hired at 300 TT). so, those opportunities definitely exist, you just have to look for them.