I have watched the world economy take a huge dump over the past few years and read the gruesome stories about rising unemployment and the difficulties of finding work round the world, all this while sitting up nights doing the best, most secure job I've ever had. And I've never read any "employment expert" suggest my line of work to anyone looking for a job. Certainly not to anyone with Asperger's...so I figured I would offer my job experience here to people with similar social difficulties to those I have tried to learn to live with. I hope some of you looking for a career find the same niche that has worked so well for me.
I have spent the past nine years working as a public safety dispatcher which means I answer 911 calls, administrative calls to the Key West police department and also dispatch fire police and rescue by radio. I work twelve hour shifts and I have been working nights, by choice, for most of that time, which is why I am posting this message in the early hours of the morning (Eastern Time).
Dispatching is a job that mostly will not appeal to people who want to be cops or firefighters. Its a sedentary job and requires monitoring several computer screens at once, typing, listening to phone calls and radio traffic over headphones and doing it for hours at a time. Dispatch centers vary wildly between big cities and small agencies, some cover several different jurisdictions, hours of shifts vary between 8 10 and 12 hours depending where you work and some centers divide staff between call takers and dispatchers.
I work in a small Florida city where three of us do everything, answering phones and talking on the radio. The skills we need are the ability to sit in a chair for twelve hours (very important!) and the ability to listen to people in distress and send them help. You have to have a high school diploma and be a legal resident (not necessarily a citizen ) at our agency. You can't have a criminal history and you have to pass a battery of tests which are stressful and anxiety producing. At least they were to me!
The hiring process takes months because police departments check every single reference you put on your application. Once hired if they think you stand a chance to do the job you start training and that takes months. You will be stressed because we want to see that you can handle stress before you are cut loose to take calls and dispatch by yourself. It is hard work. I have tried to train people with experience in call taking and they can't do this work. Similarly with social workers who can't understand why we are limited to taking calls and sending help. Dispatchers aren't social workers. you take the call, ask the same questions pretty much every time- where when who what? any weapons?- and send help.
There are no employment criteria or education skills that will indicate if you can do the job. some people can and some people can't do this job. its weird b ut the success rate in most agencies is less than five percent of applicants make it through the entire process...Thats why I recommend anyone interested give it a shot. contact your local police of sheriff's office and ask about dispatching. There are always openings almost everywhere. its the most secure job I've ever had and I can get hired anywhere with nine years experience under my belt and a willingness to work nights!
We start at $17 an hour (but Key West is an expensive town to live in) and right now we have no openings, the first time thats happened in five or six years and it won't last because someone will quit or leave town before long. However this level of full employment is a sign of how hard it is at the moment to find a job even in a tourist town like key West where people typically don't want structured work in a police department. Working twelve hour shitfs I get lots of time off working two nights on and two nights off and because I work nights I get plenty of time home alone during the day which I really enjoy. I work three day weekends and every other weekend off but i work holidays as they fall on my schedule and i never get New Year's Eve off as its a big night for law enforcement. various agencies work various shifts but ebcause of the stress time off is always important for 911 dispatchers.
Not everyone with Asperger's can do this, tons of neurotypicals can't but the routine of the job and the intimate contact with your coworkers (if you can do the job no one cares if you have odd quirks) could make this job very do-able for people with Asperger's. Most dispatchers, even neurotypicals, are quirky and a little eccentric so if you are on the spectrum and can handle a certain amount of stress (none of which is personally directed at you though it often sounds like it is when people are agitated and calling for help) you could do this.
Best of luck and I hope this post gives someone an idea about a career choice no one will ever advise you to consider.
20 Jun 2013, 4:01 am
