I received my dispatch certificate in 1998 after attending a 6-week course at one of the dispatch schools in southern Florida. The course is basically an in-depth instrument training course (using 121 regs), along with transport category aircraft systems, followed by the ATP Written Exam, and a 3-4 hour oral with the Examiner.
I started working at a 121 regional in July '98 for $10 an hour (which wasn't easy to live on in Northern Virginia). I moved up through the management ranks, to a director postion by the time I left. I also worked in the training department as the Manager of Dispatch Training...my pay topped out at $55k at the regional level.
As a dispatcher, most companies schedule you to work four 10 hour shifts, and then 3 days off. The regs state a dispatcher can be scheduled for up to 10 hours (however once you start that shift, there is no limit to how long you can remain on duty, as long as you have 8 hours off prior to your next shift).
You will become very involved in the ATC system (as they have Tel-cons every 2 hours in which the ATC Specialist in involved in). A regional dispatcher typically works about 50 flights in a 10 hour shift. On clear days, the job is very easy - check the wx/notams, enroute wx/radar/satellite, MEL's, runway analysis for each flight, and plan accordingly.
On bad weather days (especially at the hub airport), you will likely have many planes holding at the same time, diverting to different cities (which will require some phone calls/coordination on your part), reroutes, and possibly add in some maintenace issues (in-flight emergencies, maintenance control calling to ask if they can defer an item (add an MEL) to an aircraft (this may also require some coordination on your part).
You will become very familiar with the overall US Route Structure, how ATC tends to work things, as well as large-scale weather patterns (and also local weather patterns). You also tend to get a good education on aircraft systems, the IFR environment, working the fuel numbers quickly in your head, and many other things that make planning easy.
I've honestly found that a good dispatcher makes a better pilot, than a good pilot makes a better dispatcher. We had some furloughed pilots-turned dispatchers that could not quite catch on to the 'big picture' concept, and would get so focussed on the details of why they wouldn't want to divert to a particular airport, that they lost sight of the fact that there were multiple issues, and had to make the best decision based on the operation as opposed to the individual.
That is completely antectdotal evidence, but from my perspective, I found that my flying (specifically instrument flying), and decision making in the GA world was greatly enhanced from my ability to work in a 'big-picture' decision making process, and understanding how things worked on 'the other side.'
Some days are fun, some days not-so-much, but you will no doubt learn a lot about the entire 'system' which will hopefully help your flying decision-making later on when you decide to make the jump back to the cockpit.
