Despite its past reputation ADA has improved over the years from what I have seen. Professionalism was pretty poor but there's a wind of change blowing in the company with regard to that and at last everyone does recurrent simulator training at the Emirates/CAE facility up the road in Dubai.
The flying is the usual boring offshore stuff and anyone who's in Eket will find it little different from there, except it's hotter in the summer and there's a bit more underslung work. Accommodation is improving and at least we have our own bars and don't need to drink with the client. It's possible to go to the cinema or ice-skating our fishing and many other activities on days off. Transport to work doesn't involve going in armed convoys or getting ambushed and shot! There are many good supermarkets in town to get decent meals and internet and telephone connections are good (although Etisalat does censor many gambling and porn sites). You can even make mobile phone calls from offshore, though you'll need a mobile without a camera as they're paranoid about photos being taken offshore
The pay isn't as good as Nigeria, but then there's far less stress and danger here too
. However, the dirham is linked to the $ and with the strength of that currency at the moment, depending where you live, the pay is really not bad. The company management is rubbish, but again, if you can cope with A$$lick in Nigeria it's certainly no worse
. For anyone having strong reservations about staying in Nigeria after the Eket ambush last month, all I can say is, come on over - it's not so bad and a pretty good bunch of guys to work with. There's a shortage of qualified engineers, but again after what happened in Eket maybe that'll change too?
Friends still in Nigeria tell me that there are some changes happening soon and A$$lick will probably be gone in 6 months or so with Oni returning. I know that'll be 6 months too late for many, so why not come over here and have a look. You'll have nothing to lose as there will always be shortages in Nigeria and you can always go back if you don't like it here.