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Permalink Reply by Justin Westmoreland on January 27, 2009 at 2:04am

Im a part time dispatcher full time emt and voli fireman. one thing that is gonna help is the training you already have, with your current certs you have an idea of what info is need to be brought across as apposed to someone who has no clue about fire and ems and LEO. One word of advice try your hardest to stay calm during a call and dispatching. You are the link between the agency needed and the person calling, how you react will affect the person giving info to you. If you are calm then you can get the person to calm down and relay info to you. if you freak then they will freak worse. same with dispatch when you dispatch a situation try to be as calm as you can one because over pager and radio its hard to understand to begin with and it your voice is elevated or you talk real fast into the radio or red phone then it makes it hard to understand.

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Permalink Reply by debbie snacks on January 27, 2009 at 2:10am

I'm a full time dispatcher and I also dispatch for a different agency part time.

Written exams for dispatchers are usually short term memory and recording skill based. They also do reading comprehension and decision making questions. Is the dispatching position you're applying for tied to a police department? The only written exam I've ever had to take for a dispatching position was based solely around the police department and had absolutely nothing to do with fire and EMS. They gave a roll call, then had us listen to calls into dispatch and we had to record all pertinent information and answer random questions based on the information given in the calls. The second part was questions that made us make judgement calls on workplace issues between your partner, supervisor and manager.

Unfortunately there's not much that you can study. Remember that addresses are the most important information you need in dispatching, then comes everything else. Afterall, if you don't know where to send them, what good are they?? =) Good luck I hope it works out for you.

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Permalink Reply by Julie on January 27, 2009 at 7:43am

Thanks a lot for the 3 replies, that helps me out. The position is for a public safety dispatcher at the 911 center. I need to get a job and make some money. Like - really bad. I figured that a dispatch position wouldn't be so bad. But thank you for the great advice!

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