I completely agree with bryris. People who just use CFI'ing to build time really annoy those of us who enjoyed it and took it seriously.

Another thing about aerial survey and traffic watch type jobs. When the going gets rough, employers don't only care about numbers (500 hrs in 7 mos), they also somewhat care about quality of time. WOW, contrats! you have 2000 hrs of VFR day flying a grid! Wow! you've got 3000 hrs at 15 minute intervals flying skydivers!

I'm not saying these jobs are completely useless. I'm training to be a jump pilot right now. However, there's definitely a quicker plateau to learning all you can at these jobs. Many more ways to kill yourself CFI'ing or flying night freight.