I can't speak for EK guys but what ever you do, do not come to Australia to live and work, especially Sydney.
Racial violence is at an all time high, the entire beach side suburb of Cronulla was locked down for a week after racial riots. Tax is 47c in the dollar plus you pay a GST(VAT) of 10% on all consumer products. Real estate is too expensive for the average pilot to get into unless you are willing to live an hour drive from the city and airport. The freeways are all tolled and the average toll is $4 a throw.
Let's not forget the current industrial situation. Laws have been passed to de-power unions and wages and conditions are on the slide. Jetstar pilots have agreed to fly the 380 for $167,000 as a Captain and 4 of the Qantas 330 are being taken from Qantas and given to Jetstar to be flown on half the money. A Jetstar 330 Captain earns $147,000 before paying 47c in the dollar tax. As a Qantas pilot, don't expect to become a Captain under about 13 years of service and then it will to be the most junior Captain with no roster stability, just an entire roster of reserve every second roster.
There is no schooling allowance, no medical, no housing.... in fact there are no extras on top of your basic pay.
The truth is that everything I said above is true but I would not leave Qantas. I am trying to illustrate that things are never as bad as we like to think they are. I had beers in Singapore with a few EK crews and I heard from both ends of the happiness scale. Everything from how wonderful it is and everyone should be so lucky to a guy asking me how to apply to Jetstar and get paid $85,000 before tax to live in Sydney (Sydney one of the top 20 most expensive cities in the world).
It is all about perspective isn't it. I suspect EK is not as bad as pprune would make out.