this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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It's absolutely not a job for everyone, but assuming you're in the US, damn-near every 911 dispatch center in the country is always short-staffed and hiring, and usually only require a high school diploma or GED.
Since you have a computer background, I think it's safe to assume that you can type at a halfway decent WPM, that's a pretty big chunk of our aptitude test that a lot of people fail on.
A lot about this job varies from one jurisdiction to another, but in general pay is livable but not amazing and the hours are usually weird, but the benefits and job security are pretty solid.
Background checks, drug testing, etc. are of course usually part of the hiring process, and again it's just not a job everyone is cut out for.
And the pay?
must be all over the map. Long ago, in Atlanta, I heard the hourly wage in one county was fairly high, so was shocked by how low it was where I am now.
As I said
I personally came up just a hair short of 69k last year, I'm paying my bills, treating myself to some luxuries, and usually manage to save a bit, but I'm not rolling in it by a longshot.
But like I said that varies a lot around the country, I believe that's a decent bit above the national average, but not a ridiculous outlier either, it's fairly average for my area.
For context, I've been there about 6 years, so I have some seniority, but I've also elected not to pursue some training and certifications and such that could have given me a bit of a pay bump. I rarely come in for overtime, but that's always available if you want it (there have been a couple years where one of our supervisors ended up being one of if not the highest paid county employee here because the man is an overtime machine, he's a supervisor so he of course makes more than me to begin with but not so much more that you'd expect him to be in the running for that without the insane amount of overtime he does)
On average the county I work for is fairly wealthy and we're not hurting for funding. We're not union (although every few years someone starts talking about it, hasn't gotten off the ground yet but we've gotten close a few times) but most of our surrounding counties are so that helps keep our pay competitive.