Just to add in.
There is always english language issues with talking about Dispatchers in europe and definately in the UK.
Dispatchers in the UK could be better called turn around co-ordinators. All they do is ensure that all the bits of paperwork are together and all the required services requested have been provided. They have zero input into the planning or technical aspects of the flight although some may be trained to provide a load sheet.
Operations do the planning flight watch etc.
So if you want to be involved with flight planning and that sort of thing look out for ops assistant/officer jobs. If you want to work on the ramp controlling baggage, toilet drops, getting the pax to aircraft go for a dispatchers job.
Most companys will not touch you with a barge pole if you hold a pilots license in ops. It takes a suprisingly long time (months and months) before you are actually useful in ops apart from menial clerical work. And they will know that you will leave as soon as a flying job comes up.
In reality a good ops officer is on the par with being a Captain in my book. It takes a certain way of thinking to be a good one and that is genetic and can't be trained. When everything is going well you won't see whats special about them. But once the poo hits the fan thats when they come into there own saving the company money hand over fist. The bad ones from the flight line you can just see money being pissed up the wall.
Its really not the job for a wannabie pilot, a good ops officer is a proffessional in thier own right and most pilots just can't do it however much they think they can.