I felt exactly as you did, facing that task from the foothills. I thought exactly that: at the base of the mountain. Well, I climbed it. Took me five years. But it is done, and has been frankly the most worthwhile achievement of my whole life so far. I am a different person in many ways, and at least a few of them for the better. Don't overpressure yourself. Believe in yourself. Go.

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I sympathise, as does anyone who has ever done a doctoral degree, rest assured. It intrigues me to hear you say that the only work you did during this period was to work on a conference paper. I did my entire thesis by moving from one conference paper, or publication, book chapter, whatever, to the next. I used them as staging posts, with various major elements of the final thesis represented in different such talks and papers. In the end the write up was pretty simple, since I had almost all the material I needed, and simply had to fill in the gaps by stitching together more detailed examples of the papers I had already published etc. This meant I had deadline after deadline to keep me going, could see real results along the way, which was gratifying, and emerged from the exhausting process with multiple publications to my name- A BIG step up from only having the unpublished doctoral thesis in your hand. My wife has just said the above makes me sound smug! Well, didn't mean it to. It was damn hard, and I found my motivation flagging on numerous occasions, and there were conspicuous gaps in productivity, let me tell you! I simply propose that this is a good strategy, or at least one that I found kept me interested, and whipped me into shape along the way, as I had to satisfy various interim deadlines, and editors, etc.

I cannot see anything wrong at all with the GTA. You appear to have answered all your own questions. Just apply for the position, and if you get it, it will give you some experience as you say, money, and breathing space. Meanwhile you can monitor the airwaves for the job you want. Else you may begin to drift...

Don't rush it. A PhD is an entirely different experience from anything you have done before academically. Many do not stay the course, and drop out, and the desire to be in possession of a doctorate is not of itself reason to seek to do one. It is in fact the worst reason of all. In my experience the most dedicated and fruitful doctoral candidates are more mature, and have taken a few years, sometimes decades, to come to the decision to begin. These candidates have a burning passionate interest in a particular subject, which takes them through the process in and of itself. If you find yourself thinking: "I want to do a PhD, but I am not sure what in. I will try to decide upon a subject", then most likely you are not ready to do one. You will either not complete it, or else you will, but you will hate the subject, and possibly yourself by the end of it. Caveat! Take it easy. Go live a little.