F/O salary after May 2007 ... something around USD5,400.00 gross.
Deductions are 5% provident fund, car loan (if you take it), pilot's club, family insurance.
Time to upgrade ... only god knows. Policies change very often to suit company's needs. Depending on your experience, they might put you up for an accelerated command course, or freeze you in the right seat between three to five years. Airplanes are arriving fast, routes are being opened fast and unless some regional or world wide upheavel comes along, things look all right for a young pilot (in his thirties) at EK. They have no commitment with employees, though. Your aspirations are not the priority, sad to say, but this is like any other big business.
I had my interview some fifteen years ago, so I am not the right one to give you info on that. I am sure some new guy can give you a better picture of the new hiring process. I know they are full of this CRM bull****, multicultural skills, democratic thinking, all this sort of crap
The only time you would really be tested as a pilot would be in the sim assessment. You have to show that you can fly and manage the cockpit, even from the right seat. So, have a problem? Fly, assess, manage, action, re-assess ... something to that effect
All the best