A friend of mine (who is still stuck to a desk working ops) asked me to comment.
Stay as far away as possible. I am a former Dispatcher, Dispatch Trainer, ground school instructor for both pilots and DX, Check Dispatcher, Bornemann/SABRE Eagle Key User, Operations Controller, crew babysitter, crew scheduling babysitter, stupid gate agent babysitter; I think that is all.
When the fit hits the shan, like nearly anyday in ORD with a wind or a cloud around, you'll be severely overworked and on any day grossly underpaid. For all of those functions I delineated up there, I was paid a whopping 14.28 an hour. Wow! Can I afford the cheese fries?
Granted, on the severe VFR days when the airplanes are working, ATC is cooperating, and not much is going on, dispatching can be the easiest job around. Release a flight, and surf the web for a bit. HOWEVER, there still is management going so far up your flight planning arse nitpicking every lb of fuel you added (did we need 10 minutes of contingency fuel for FWA - yes we did, considering I'm departing off 22L in ORD with a 30 min taxi from T2, and your block taxi burn is 12 minutes, and I really dont like to plan to land with just a ************************* hair over reserves on board you jagdorf).
I permanently left aviation, after 9 years, from throwing bags to moving airplanes. Even gave my DX ticket back to the Unclefed to insure that at some point in time in the future I dont get stupid and want to come back. Yeah, sometimes I miss it (at least on those days where there isnt a cloud for hundreds of miles), then I come back to FI and see all of the bitching, whining, and moaning (primarily pilot-based), then decide Nahh - I really dont miss it at all.
If you want to be in aviation, get a PPL and hit airshows, for if youre in it for a secure financial future - well, thats not going to happen, neither the secure, nor the financial part.