2. Is there much turnover at your agency? If yes, why?
Individuals leave this career for a number of reasons. Difficulty learning the job, the amount of material that has to be learned, dealing with people in crisis, hours, stress, shift work, and of course, personal reasons such as family, school, etc. Others leave the position only to discover that they love the job and they return to their home agency or another dispatch center. Dispatching really can “get into your blood”.
Many people hit a position of “burn out”. It’s probably a combination of everything listed in the above paragraph plus unresolved stress issues. You need to ask a variety of experienced dispatchers why they “love” the job or if they have ever considered leaving it. The answers you get will have as much variety as you can imagine. We suggest you ask to “sit along” in the dispatch center that you get serious about. You may learn that they work and play together well OR that you are about to be employed in a lions’ den.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to getting hired in this profession: 1- Get hired anywhere you can. Buckle down, learn everything humanly possible, pass probation (usually 6 months to 18 months) and then decide to stay or apply as a “lateral” employee somewhere more favorable. 2-Do a great deal of research and only work at a communications center that you can almost guarantee you will love. The only down sides to selecting #1 is that you may catch a bad case of their nasty attitude and that you will have wasted 6-18 months that you won’t have at the second agency you move to. Seniority is a big deal but early in your career, it’s not a bad career move to lateral into a more enjoyable workplace.
