Hi Fred,
Congrats mate, you're on your way to a very satisfying adventure.
I am relitively new at easyJet, having just completed 6 months. It's the fourth airline I've flown for in the last three years, so I think I can give you a fairly impartial view.
Firstly, don't be put off by the nay-sayers on PPRUNE. People with a beef will never hesitate to complain. Those with nothing to gripe about are usually too busy enjoying life to publicise it!
I think a lot of the ill-feeling in easy is left over from problems that have been largely resolved and are somewhat base specific.
One of the major gripes was roster stability. As a Liverpool based Captain, I have never had a more stable work pattern than now. Not once have I been asked to work on a day off, and the few schedule changes have been non-eventful and very infrequent.
We work long hours, flying near (Though, and again this may be specific to LPL, not THAT near) to max hours. However, as the majority of our flying happens in what would be considered "Normal" waking hours (earliest sign-on 0600 local, latest arrival 1:30am), it doesn't disrupt your sleep patterns that badley. London bases do have a few horror trips (night Athens seems to always get a mention) but, coming from charter flying where through-the-night trips were the norm, it's not bad at all.
My advise would be 1) Go for one of the smaller, non-London bases, and 2) When someone with a beef bitches to you, smile politely, than go fly your nice shiny jet.
The aircraft are nice, the routes are varied, and as a first job you are SO far ahead (You COULD be flying a Shed on night freight, or a C206 in the Aussie bush!) it's not funny.
Enjoy.