Going through IERW in its present form, while not helping your build FW hours, would give you some good knowledge and skills. In addition you will find serving in the Guard/Reserves, even in a RW unit, will give you great contacts in the FW world. When I was in the Guard almost all of the "part time" WO pilots were pilots outside of the Guard, either FW or RW. I remember one mission in Iraq when my copilot was also from my airline. We picked up a unit and, as usual, the senior officer was given a headset to talk to us if needed. After listening to us for about 30 minutes he asked if we were airline pilots. We responded that we were. He asked which airline and we told him. Turned out he was a pilot for the same airline.