I flew corporate very briefly in the beginning of my career. Then I flew 121 for 9 yrs. During that time, I took two COLAs. One was to fly for an overseas airline. The other was to run a VIP Corporate Charter operation in the Middle East. That was some of the best flying I've done in my career till date. When that project was up I came back to 121 for 9 mos before getting on with a major. Now, I've supposedly hit the big leagues. I fly WB jets all over the world and I'm even holding 737 CA as of the latest bid. One would think the world is my oyster. Yet, I'm tired, burnt out and overall rundown by the schedules. We re working condsiderably harder on the 121 side of the business these days than ever before in history. Unless you're in the top 30% at an airline, it's hard work... not physically hard, just taxing on the body and the mind (read poor shchedules).
I miss corporate flying. I get approximately one solid offer per month and I'm not even looking so I know there is plenty of opportunity on the corp side. I've got too much invested in my career move thus far to abandon ship and jump back to corporate but the next time COLA get offered, I will take one and worry about finding the right gig once I'm officially out on leave.
Unless you hit the jackpot like me at got hired at the beginning of a boom, I would certainly chose corporate over airline any day of the week... assuming you found the right fit.