first year at EK
Hi guys, I wanted to add my two sense worth to this forum.
I originally discovered pprune last year when I was searching for info for my up and coming Emirates interview. After sifting through the negative posts I found a bit of info to help me prepare for the interview. I was also starting to question whether I should be going at all. I'd like to thank the "disgruntled" posters now, as my attitude during the interview was relaxed and helped me perform well as I didn't know if I wanted to work here at all!
Here's a quick run down of my first year:
- the interview process was intense, thorough and quite impressive, but overall handled very professional.
- the first 3 months were also intense and tiring at times but manageable. The training was pretty good (B777). Most the instructors were excellent with just a few 'dud's'. Alot of training sessions are provided and were enough to prepare for the PPC. (I came from the CRJ) The hardest part is learning what to study and when (weak point: EK has info all over the place in about 6 different manuals). I finally gave in and bought a few study manuals that some local EK pilots make that put everything you need to know into one place.
- first month of line training was much more fun but still challenging to learn all the EK stuff (I came from the regional world). Again most guys were great,,the TRE's I had were tough, smart and fair.
- now flying the line for 7 months and life is great. The airplane rocks, haven't had one bad skipper yet (some are more fun than others). Had some great layovers, good service on board (gained a few kilos eating the first class meals). Cabin crew are generally sweet and usually pretty nice to us. The hardest part is many of the sectors occur through the night/morning...it can get tough staying up until 6am (first time trying controlled rest or sleeping in a bunk), etc,,,but I wouldn't trade it for my previous flying schedule.
- accommodations; I took the utility allowance (152000 Dhs/yr), and my wife and I (no kids) are staying in a large 1 bdrm apartment at a five star hotel in downtown dubai. It rocks. I maxed out my allowance to live in style, however some guys can find a nice place for half of what we get and pocket the rest. I don't touch my salary except for food.
- Salary, I'm averaging 27,500 AED/month. This is basic, flying pay, exchange protection and phone. Since I have no cost of living except food, this is all mine to spend. It's more usable income than my wife and I had in our previous western country after we paid our taxes and living expenses (we both used to make $100K each). I'll point out that we have no car as we don't need/want one in our downtown location and generally if we go out, it's for drinks and would have to take a taxi anyway. (taxi's in Dubai are cheap).
Of course if you have a family, you will have a villa in the burbs, need a car and have family related expenses, etc.
- Dubai, I like it. Coming from a cold country, I like hanging by the pool in January, and yes it's hot in the summer but the AC works everywhere (I'd rather sweat for a few months than freeze my butt off). Lot's to do from recreational, clubs, good bars and restaurants. Prices are cheaper than New York but way more than India! Cool mix of people. We're at 92% expat population so lots of social groups for everyone and lot's of single people.(weak point- sometimes service in DXB is frustrating as the workforce is generally under trained, under qualified, under paid and over worked people from 3rd world countries, so you need a bit of patience coming from efficient parts of the world.)
So a year in and and I'm happy and so is my wife.
I ask almost every guy I fly with (Capt and F/O) and 90% of them are also happy and they have varied from 5 to 18 years with EK.
Is this the perfect job? No..Is there better flying jobs out there? I don't know? This is were it get's very personal to where your priorities are. It seems most guys leave here to get a commuting type job (Korean, Turkish, etc) to live at home, or go back to domestic flying in their home country or try something new like corporate.
The few guys I've met who are not happy here are usually not here by choice (ie. there were layed off prior to coming here or thought their job security/pension were in jeopardy). The other reason seems to be this job was really good a few years ago with 75hr flying with a lower overtime threshold and now we all seem to be doing 90hrs+ for flat salary, also a few ill decisions made by management over the years that lowered morale. For this I completely understand where they're coming from, but as a new guy I never knew the difference and experienced all the same problems and "take backs" at my previous company in my own country.
This is still the best job I've ever had and am glad I came.
Hope this helps for people trying to make decisions. I thought EK was full of sour pilots after reading this forum, but like my former company, the people that are happy don't bother posting and have better things to do....
I know I'll probably get slammed by some people here, but this is my point of view of the company. Others will definitely vary.
For me, the interview showed me what I needed to see. So come if you dare, but definitely prepare...it's tough.
that being said,,,you won't see me again unless it's in the flight deck!
good luck fellow aviators