Don't forget to involve your family, if you have one. For many wives it's a big challenge to adapt to the insane Dubai day-to-day living. Some wives never like it and leave after a while. No doubt everyone is putting his health at risk with all the dust and toxic fumes around here...
To be honest living here is the hardest part of the job for me and my family.
If you're single and you like partying: different story...
As to EK :
More than half of your check-ins will be around 1am. It messes up your body clock. I'm struggling more than in my previous airliner to stay fit. If you like hand flying don't even think of coming here. I miss that aspect of flying a lot though they restricted this some time ago with a good reason: most of us are sleeping dummies on arrival.....
And money wise... With the current dollar woes this must now be one of the worst paid heavy jobs in the industry. Might be temporary....donno.
3yrs to 4yrs to Command depending on the fleet. You'll need the captains pay to save some money....