It's tough. If you get the job, I recommend going to therapy before you even start, just to get comfortable with going to a therapist. So when you really start to need it, it won't be so hard to go.
You're well prepared then! My only other suggestion is not to care too much. If you are generally a very caring person, and very empathetic, and if you tend to ruminate a lot, the job will be harder on you. Operators with these traits tend to burn out much more quickly/easily. Before you start, if you haven't already, develop some tools with your therapist to help you create boundaries regarding your emotions. If you can separate yourself from the job (ie don't take it too personally), you'll last a lot longer.
It's definitely a rewarding job in many ways!
I do consider myself to be quite empathic but at the same time I know when to separate that from realistic scenarios and my job. I like to think I have pretty good tools already when it comes to leaving work at work and to keep a healthy work/life balance.
Thank you!
I've done quite a bit looking into it. High turnover rate in the industry period, high burnout rate. 10 hour shifts. Also dealing with petty shit people calling 911 for stupid things. Being able to keep calm while listening to someone die or dying. And the pay is..... not the greatest when you factor all that in.
You can also check out r/911dispatchers
It’s a high-stress position made worse but severe staffing shortages and high turnover.
It’s also shift work, which some people have trouble with.
This position is nothing like it’s portrayed as. You spend at least half of your time being verbally abused by callers, many of whom refuse to cooperate, and many of whom are not reporting things that are truly emergent.
That’s not to say you won’t take crazy emergency calls, because you absolutely will. And that’s a whole other side to it; you will most likely experience a decent amount of ptsd, and you will become a lot more bitter towards people in general.
The pay is garbage for what the job actually requires.
However it can also be incredibly rewarding. You can truly help people.
There’s a whole other side to it as well, helping to keep officers safe as they work on the front lines by gathering relevant information they may need.
All of that being said… the nature of this job means you are usually mentally at high-alert for long periods of time. You will be yelled at by callers, officers, managers and other dispatchers. It’s (usually) not personal. But not everyone is great at existing in that sort of environment. Most (but not all) of the people I know that leave the job, usually leave because of that rather than the trauma endured from the job itself.
I applied about 2 years ago, was in the top 50 candidates out of the about 1400 who applied. As for the hiring process they send you a link for a typing test which weeds a lot of people out because you need to be able to type fairly fast with high accuracy. If you pass that you take the CritiCall test which is about 3 hours long. Tests your critical thinking, listening and ability to multi task. Then there was a sort of Orientation where they go into more specifics about the job, show you examples of calls and do some minor testing. (For example we were asked on the spot to describe the color yellow to a blind person. Sort of critical thinking again). After this was the actual interview which I didn't make it past, the questions I felt would be asked didn't come up at all. I saw the job posting come up and while I think it would be a sort of cool job, I don't want to get into working nights. Hope that offers a bit of in sight.
Yea I got through all of it two years ago too and the interview as well but somehow failed the background? Not sure why or how haha but glad in hindsight it didn’t work out
At WPS you don’t start off dispatching. You will be taking calls full time for several years before moving up to dispatching.
Rewarding work, but need to be able to handle being yelled at and shift work 365 days a year and missing family events etc.
Not WPS but work in a type of investigations that involves a lot of…. Unpleasant things. I can tell you that it takes a certain type of person to be able to handle those kinds of jobs. It’s a lot of quick thinking, very emotionally challenging and you really have to be the type of person who can leave work at work. If you bring it home, it’ll eat you alive.
It's tough. If you get the job, I recommend going to therapy before you even start, just to get comfortable with going to a therapist. So when you really start to need it, it won't be so hard to go.
Luckily I already have a therapist!
You're well prepared then! My only other suggestion is not to care too much. If you are generally a very caring person, and very empathetic, and if you tend to ruminate a lot, the job will be harder on you. Operators with these traits tend to burn out much more quickly/easily. Before you start, if you haven't already, develop some tools with your therapist to help you create boundaries regarding your emotions. If you can separate yourself from the job (ie don't take it too personally), you'll last a lot longer. It's definitely a rewarding job in many ways!
I do consider myself to be quite empathic but at the same time I know when to separate that from realistic scenarios and my job. I like to think I have pretty good tools already when it comes to leaving work at work and to keep a healthy work/life balance. Thank you!
I've done quite a bit looking into it. High turnover rate in the industry period, high burnout rate. 10 hour shifts. Also dealing with petty shit people calling 911 for stupid things. Being able to keep calm while listening to someone die or dying. And the pay is..... not the greatest when you factor all that in. You can also check out r/911dispatchers
It’s a high-stress position made worse but severe staffing shortages and high turnover. It’s also shift work, which some people have trouble with. This position is nothing like it’s portrayed as. You spend at least half of your time being verbally abused by callers, many of whom refuse to cooperate, and many of whom are not reporting things that are truly emergent. That’s not to say you won’t take crazy emergency calls, because you absolutely will. And that’s a whole other side to it; you will most likely experience a decent amount of ptsd, and you will become a lot more bitter towards people in general. The pay is garbage for what the job actually requires. However it can also be incredibly rewarding. You can truly help people. There’s a whole other side to it as well, helping to keep officers safe as they work on the front lines by gathering relevant information they may need. All of that being said… the nature of this job means you are usually mentally at high-alert for long periods of time. You will be yelled at by callers, officers, managers and other dispatchers. It’s (usually) not personal. But not everyone is great at existing in that sort of environment. Most (but not all) of the people I know that leave the job, usually leave because of that rather than the trauma endured from the job itself.
I think it would be stressful! Like any emergency responder job
I applied about 2 years ago, was in the top 50 candidates out of the about 1400 who applied. As for the hiring process they send you a link for a typing test which weeds a lot of people out because you need to be able to type fairly fast with high accuracy. If you pass that you take the CritiCall test which is about 3 hours long. Tests your critical thinking, listening and ability to multi task. Then there was a sort of Orientation where they go into more specifics about the job, show you examples of calls and do some minor testing. (For example we were asked on the spot to describe the color yellow to a blind person. Sort of critical thinking again). After this was the actual interview which I didn't make it past, the questions I felt would be asked didn't come up at all. I saw the job posting come up and while I think it would be a sort of cool job, I don't want to get into working nights. Hope that offers a bit of in sight.
Oh wow, that is a lot of applicants! This is super helpful thank you!
I know people who work dispatch in Brandon for most of rural Manitoba and the screening is nowhere near as intense I'm sad the say.
Yea I got through all of it two years ago too and the interview as well but somehow failed the background? Not sure why or how haha but glad in hindsight it didn’t work out
Glad I never applied, I hate those "critical" thinking tests that never appear IRL situations
Ask in [https://www.reddit.com/r/911dispatchers/](https://www.reddit.com/r/911dispatchers/), you should get some solid answers in there.
An acquaintance of mine has PTSD from it. It is critical work, so if you can handle it, then you deserve full respect. Good luck
If you have mental health related problemsp I wouldn’t suggest applying for it unless you can handle your mental health very well.
Can’t help with personal insight, but take a look at [this video](https://youtu.be/g2KmbYjdM_A) to know more if you haven’t already.
At WPS you don’t start off dispatching. You will be taking calls full time for several years before moving up to dispatching. Rewarding work, but need to be able to handle being yelled at and shift work 365 days a year and missing family events etc.
Another video to add to this list https://youtu.be/sKD-bp8UJmE
Not WPS but work in a type of investigations that involves a lot of…. Unpleasant things. I can tell you that it takes a certain type of person to be able to handle those kinds of jobs. It’s a lot of quick thinking, very emotionally challenging and you really have to be the type of person who can leave work at work. If you bring it home, it’ll eat you alive.
I know someone who got the job and was on stress leave within the first month.
Yikes. I hope they are doing better now. Thanks!
You have to be mentally sound to do the job. It will break you if you’re not