The roster is as follows: you have 6 weeks annual leave. At all other times, you are on 24/7 call.
Typically, a pilot will receive an sms the day before a flight (very rarely earlier) notifying him of the flight. Occasionally, there is a scramble where you have to get to the airport within 2 hours, but this is generally only once or twice a year.
The schedule is not fixed, it is dictated by the passenger. You might receive a flight notification to take pax to point A, wait for them for 2 hours then return to origin. You will sit on the aircraft at point A waiting for your pax and after 2 hours, they haven't turned up. After 6 hours, they still haven't turned up, and then after 8 hours, they turn up and you take them home.
Alternatively, you fly pax 6 hours to their destination, and make your way to your hotel. Just as you rip your kit off to relax, you get a call to return to the aircraft and do another 2 hour sector...
If you cannot adapt to this type of operation, don't waste your time applying. You would only be unhappy. If you want a roster, don't apply. If you want to commute, don't apply. If you want to be able to pop down to Dubai for a weekend, don't apply. If you will get upset when you cannot be available for a dinner party that you have organised, don't apply.
You (and your family) need to be flexible to maintain your sanity in this type of operation.
As for salary, allowances and conditions, I can't say what they are but I can say that they have not changed since the Lufthansa management left a few years ago (either up nor down).
You also need a significant amount of tolerance to survive living in Doha. The traffic is still crazy and if you have school aged kids where you will be spending lots of time on the road doing school runs, that will grind you and the missus down.
Recruiting onto the Airbus is not happening at the moment as far as I know. Recruiting is underway (still) for the B748s with the first intake having just been accepted.
So, is Amiri a bad place to be? There are certainly some pilots who don't enjoy it, but there are many who are either ambivalent or even happy with it. They put up with the uncertainty associated with the operation but generally enjoy the varied destinations and ad-hoc nature of the operation. I know that my immediate colleagues are quite happy to be here. I know some on the Airbus fleet who really enjoy the job but I know of a few who don't. It's like anywhere really. There will be some that enjoy it and some that don't. There are upsides, there are downsides. There are better jobs, there are certainly worse jobs. It's up to the individual whether this job is for them or not.
Just as a reminder, copilots are not recruited and Captains will need at least 8000 hours total including at least 5000 in command so if you don't have these hours, please don't pm me to ask if you would be accepted. My answer will be "highly unlikely".
Cheers,
Amiri01