PASCO COUNTY, Fla.  (WFLA) – Nearly 300 people showed up at the government building in Pasco County on Wednesday night looking for a job.

The county currently has 16 openings for 911 dispatchers. Officials admit it’s difficult to fill the spot while at the same time, just as difficult for the applicants to get the job.

Officials say when many job seekers fill out the application, they’re afraid their past will come back to haunt them. Kathy Herzog has dealt with practically any emergency you can think of.

“When we answer a call, we don’t know what’s on the other end of the line,” Herzog said as she took a quick break from answering the phone.

Herzog has been a dispatcher for 27 years in a job that has an extremely high turn-over rate.

Kevin Guthrie is director of Pasco County’s Emergency Management Office.

“If I get three to five years out of an individual, I’m ecstatic,” Guthrie said.

Most of the nearly 300 people who showed up Wednesday night looking to fill those 16 open spots won’t get the job, especially if the past is any indicator. The last session drew 200 people and just two people got the jobs.

“It takes 100 applicants to get one person,” Guthrie said.

But News Channel 8 wanted to know why. Applicants must pass the drug screens, background checks, and the all-important polygraph test.

“We know that people have things in their background,” Guthrie said.  “We know that things happen, that people live life.  We want people to tell us the truth.”

Guthrie says people are afraid to admit they did drugs years ago or that they’re currently on probation.

He wants them to simply tell the truth. For instance, if you smoked pot then you’d have to be clean for several years. Herzog says for her, it’s all in a day’s work.

“But it’s more than just a paycheck,” she said.  “This is a career. This is my passion.”

Applicants will have to wait about a month for their applications to go through. If they are approved, they will undergo a total of 4 months’ worth of training.