While a lot of entry level jobs exist out there (including airline positions), ag (crop dusting) isn't among them.
Don't build hours. Build experience. The numbers you put in your logbook are the same, but the attitude you take while putting those numbers there is very different. Look at each hour you fly as an hour of experience. If you want to log hours, then falsify them. Fraudulently put them in your logook and go get a job. A lot of pilots have done it. You won't be worth jack **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** as a pilot, but you'll probably get a job and be just dangerous enough to hurt yourself and kill your passengers.
Conversely, you must learn to walk before you run, and you have got to crawl before that. Trying to skip a level is a fools errand. Build your experience in whatever way you can; flight instructing is an excellent paying format to do that, but there are many others. Flying skydivers, flying searches for CAP, and so forth.
Years ago I met a young gentleman in an airline interview. He was a sharp kid, going for his first interview, and his first job in a multi engine airplane. He got hired. He had gained all his experience, from before he had a commercial certificate, in antique biplanes. He was attending a school for his conventional gear signoff, and met up with another gentleman who was there doing some other training.
That other gentleman owned a collection of older and newer biplanes. He was so taken with the attitude of this young man that he loaned him a cub, and sent him on his way to do a little learning in it. As soon as the boy had his certificate, he went to work for this gentleman, giving scenic rides and later instruction in the airlplanes. That young man wasn't building hours, but he gained a wealth of experience.
There is no need to be a flight instructor, but it's certainly a privilege. I seldom get to instruct formally, though I enjoy the hell out of it. Don't knock it until you've had the opportunity.
Look at it realistically. Presently, you've got nothing to offer to a potential employer of the type you desire. You're not qualified, and you don't have the experience. You need the experience. In an age when everybody gets out of school and wants it all now, the simple truth is that you can't have it all now. You need to build up your experience in steps...and that means accepting what work you can find at this stage in your career.
I've been through a lot of interviews over the years, probably like many others here. Most of them involve a chance to arrive the night before, and often converse with others who are interviewing. It's a rare pilot that doesn't show up for an interview who doesn't hold or hasn't held a flight instructor certificate. The one exception are pilots coming from the military, and often a number of those have held an Instructor Pilot qualification as well. Those who haven't, have missed out.
Traffic watch positions are to be found in most big cities. Brine shrimp patrol, or fish spotting are around. All sorts of options. But honestly, probably your best bet is to locate an instructing position in an operation that moves it's folks into the charter department. You have a path and a place to go.
Movement in the industry is slow. The truth is that you can't have it all right now. All the schools and the certificate mills would like people to believe so, because that's how they get people in the door. Come, be a pilot, go fly for the airlines, be home 27 days a month and make a quarter of a million dollars a year. All within two years of the day you start our program. But the truth is, it doesn't really happen like that. It really takes three years.
Seriously...bide your time. Take what opportunities come along. Remember that even if you prefer not to instruct (and I'd strongly encourage you not to do so if it's not something you'll enjoy), having the instructor certificate is still a plus on your resume. Think of it this way; when you're trying to be competitive, you want to be more qualified than the next person. If every other competitor has college and all the basic ratings and instructor qualifications, then you should try to do the same. You'll probably not use that college degree, but it certainly holds you back competitively if you don't have it. You'll probably not use the instructor certificate when seeking a corporate or airline job later...but it still helps to have it. Don't neglect obtaining it.
Another point to consider in your quest is that if you do find that you can live with the lowly office of flight instructor (there is no higher office than that of teacher...and there's a difference between teaching and instructing), you stand to make contacts in your instructing. Those contacts may be the people who help you obtain your next job. You'll find few other flying jobs that let you met such a wide variety of people, and keep you at the airport as much and as long as full time flight instructing. One more reason to consider that as a very viable option.
Build experience, not hours. Don't overlook opportunities, even if it's the road every one else is taking (eg, flight instructing). Don't get discouraged when things don't happen over night. Many of us were ten years or more in the industry before we tasted something aside from noodles and jello on a regular basis, and longer before we smelled kerosine outside of a diesel truck. Chin up...and remember. Every day older is one day closer to death.
Guess I need to start a bikini carwash, or rather airplane wash...J/K.
I also have an Aviation Safety minor and certificate.
