Rieke, consider this as well: as a DEC at EK, you shall likely be working with guys in the right seat who really should be aircraft commanders at EK, if not Training Captains or management !
The very recent introduction of direct entry commands has undermined the position many pilots thought they were in at Emirates. I have no problem with someone being by pased for requiring more experience, but I do have a problem with someone with 12,000 hours, 8,000 on transport jets, years of management and training experience with a now defunct international airline, being told they have insufficient experience to be a wide-body DEC.
Now I could wax lyrical and say something like "if you write your contract in the sand etc..." but I feel for these guys. And I too turned them down a few years ago, so you can forget the sour grapes take also. Do you really want to join a firm that will likely end up where Cathay and Gulf Air are now ? Delightfully high moral there wouldn't you say ? And for those of you who are going to start telling me how great EK is, just remember, we were saying that about Royal Brunei and Gulf Air fifteen years ago...