10 Great West Virginia Jobs to Consider

Are you thinking of settling down in the Mountain State? That’s a wise decision, and you’ll soon see why. West Virginia is experiencing a booming economy. Several industries are thriving, so you’ll be spoilt for choice when hunting for work. The fact that great jobs with security are part of the deal should excite you. Read on to see what awaits you.

1. Shipping Professional

There are many career opportunities for a shipping professional in West Virginia. You can start your career in several subcategories, including commercial fishing, research sciences, transportation and shipping, and offshore rigs. You can also find great jobs in government positions serving the maritime industry.

Within the shipping industry, you can work as a technical officer, an accountant, a lawyer, or any other career you want to follow. For instance, as an accountant, you must ensure the new shipping container has paid all requisite taxes. The excellent news about shipping jobs is the higher starting wages.

They also have better benefits, and you can travel widely, especially if you’ll be working on cruise ships. Like Robinson Crusoe’s, your sense of adventure will be piqued if this was your childhood dream. Shipping jobs come with job security, a lot of training and development, and your career path will be apparent from the get-go.

You must also know the risks you can expect while working at sea. The work is a lot. You will be putting in long hours of intensive labor. You must be able to lift heavy items and objects, such as a shipping crate, using machines.

You will miss friends and family for long periods. Your job as a seafarer will have you spend many days away from home. You’ll be seasick occasionally, and the nature of high-pressure work may result in burnout.

2. Home Remodeler

If you are considering a career as a home remodeler, you must be trained and qualified in interior home design. It would be best if you were a creative who can translate your clients’ ideas into real solutions. You can get a job at a home remodeling company that meets your personal goals in West Virginia.

You must be an effective communicator who can follow through with clients. You will make intricate home improvements, such as replacing the floor, putting shingles on the roofs, fixing new kitchen cabinets, or repairing existing ones. One of the most popular remodeling jobs is bathroom remodeling.

Home remodeling is among the great jobs that maximize your creativity. Your job will be fun if you work for a firm that specializes in buying old homes and giving them an upgrade. Such projects improve the resale value of a home by a significant margin.

You must know the building code requirements in the region. As a professional, you’ll also be expected to effectively recommend the best quality parts, including the best pole barns. The houses you remodel should pass inspection that authorized agents will do.

Ensure you’re trained and armed with a certificate or an associate’s degree in home remodeling. The work is more profitable when you have skills in remodeling and renovating. These include skills like planning contracts, drawing, scheduling, framing doors, and inspecting building materials.

3. Dentist

As a dentist, you treat people’s gums and teeth. You’ll also extract teeth, fill cavities, install clear braces, and fit dentures. You can specialize in practicing as a pediatric dentist or a family dentist.

Expect to work with dental hygienists who clean up a patient’s teeth. It’s one of the great jobs where you work with dental assistants who will be your record keepers. You’ll learn to give preventive and restorative dental procedures during training.

You can start your job as a dentist by working in a dental office, and the starting pay is quite good. Later, you may specialize in specific dental care, such as dental surgery or dentofacial aesthetics. You’ll train for some years in dental school and graduate with certification.

To open your private practice, you must apply for licenses and other professional credentials. After, you can further dental education and exploit academic opportunities to expand your knowledge. You may want to consider entering the field of clinical research.

As a dental researcher, you’ll be part of the people who introduce advanced technologies and techniques to dental practice. You will be celebrated for discovering new oral health ideas for use in the community. If you’re passionate about passing on knowledge, you may think of teaching in dental school. Your input to the dental school curriculum will improve the profession for the next generation.

4. Doctor

It would help if you were board-certified to work as a doctor. Although it is legally voluntary, most employers will need it before giving you a job. Work on your skills, knowledge, and expertise to prepare for the board examination.

You must prove you can offer quality patient care in your chosen specialization. So, if you want to administer botox services, you must be a licensed healthcare practitioner. A physician, physician assistant, nurse, dentist, or other licensed healthcare practitioner is a good start.

With your medical degree, you will need to take a residency program, which can be between three to seven years, depending on your area of specialization. You will then take an additional education for doing cosmetic-related work. As a doctor, you can access some of the most advanced and latest technologies in treating different health issues.

Being a doctor is one of the great jobs in West Virginia that’s highly satisfying and well-paid. A risk to the career is the litigation that always rears its head when medical procedures go wrong. You can work as a primary care physician, choosing to be a general internist, a family physician, or a pediatrician. As a cosmetic doctor, you will focus on procedures meant to boost the looks of your patients.

5. Lawyer

Working as a lawyer in West Virginia requires an extensive understanding of the law. You’ll also need strong writing, analysis, and research skills. Negotiation and argumentation combined with strong public speaking skills are helpful, too.

You’ll need a law degree from a university accredited by the American Bar Association. You should then pass the bar exam before you can practice. Lawyer jobs are among the great jobs in West Virginia that guarantee employability and job security.

As a lawyer, you may work in a physical law office or remotely, depending on your law firm’s working structures. If you specialize in expert law or as an advisor, you may not need to appear in court to prosecute a case. As an advisor, you’ll mainly carry out lawyer duties such as writing contracts, reviewing market claims, such as pharmaceutical claims affecting the public, and helping draft public policy documents.

However, it would be best if you represented your clients, individuals, government agencies, or businesses in court and other legal proceedings. You will also appear in court with your client if you specialize as a criminal law lawyer. You will be known as an accident lawyer if you specialize in personal injury law. In this case, you’ll work to ensure your clients are compensated fully for their injuries after motor accidents and workplace injuries, among others.

6. Live Chat Agent

As shopping and many other interactions go digital, chat agent jobs are also increasing in West Virginia. A live chat agent responds to customer queries and offers real-time support. You will primarily work with sales and technical teams, and you can expect to troubleshoot issues and assist with remote guidance and instruction to customers.

Responding fast and courteously through chat is among the key performance indicators for your job. You will also be tasked with Email communications as you follow up with clients. You need deep knowledge of the products or services your company offers.

You can learn about the products while on the job. The chat agent career is among the great jobs that are customer-facing. You must have details on as many of your products and services as possible if not all.

You can work remotely in this job or from a call center since you interact with customers from a virtual environment. Your employer will teach you to follow a flowchart to help identify and resolve customer problems. Most live chat jobs verify customer information and process payments or refunds. For some organizations, your job description will include working either day or night so that you may work in a shift.

7. Frac Sand Owner Operator

Frac sand is a high-purity quartz sand. It is used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract petroleum fluids like oil and natural gas. To be a frac sand owner-operator, you need a commercial driver’s license to drive within West Virginia. It would help if you also had a truck for your frac sand hauling work. You’ll be hauling sand from a production site to the mining site.

This is among the great jobs that pay a high income. The fracking process needs a lot of sand typically, so there is great demand for large trucks that can haul frac sand in bulk. As a driver, you will work extended hours transporting the frac sand from a train depot to a dig site.

To succeed in this job, you must be familiar with freight logistics and can load and unload frac sand quickly. You should also have basic knowledge of trucking procedures. If you don’t have a truck, you can get one.

Some companies will provide a car, but others may only give fuel if you come with your truck. You will need good communication and negotiation skills. An experience as a freight hauler is an added advantage as you will stand out from other job seekers.

8. Nurse Practitioner

There are many opportunities to work as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) in West Virginia. Your additional job responsibilities will include prescribing medication, examining patients, diagnosing illnesses, and providing treatment, like physicians. You’ll also qualified to perform medical procedures such as putting a cast on an injury, intubation, and debridement.

Working as a nurse practitioner is one of the great jobs with good pay and excellent career growth opportunities. You can work in any healthcare facility, such as a hospital, outpatient care center, physician’s office, or nursing home. You may get a job in home health where you’ll provide treatment and follow-up care in your client’s home. You will find your services needed in rural outreach programs where you will travel to offer healthcare services to people in areas that have little access to healthcare.

9. Pilot Driver

As a pilot driver, you’ll operate the vehicle that leads oversized trucks and other large vehicles. Among your duties will be driving an automobile in front of or behind a big vehicle. You must communicate with the truck driver as you continue driving.

You’ll update the truck driver on upcoming traffic and road situations, such as traffic lights, traffic jams, and any obstacles. Your car may have a siren or lights to warn other motorists that an oversized truck is right behind you. Ensure you have a driver’s license, the required permits, and skills to communicate with truck drivers on the radio.

Before you get the permit, you must undergo further training and register with the Department of Transportation. This is one of the great jobs where you must have experience navigating roads and highways. The permit helps you get approved equipment in your vehicle, such as the warning lights, Wide Load signs, and sirens, since you’ll be driving in front of other vehicles.

10. Water Treatment Plant Operator

As a water treatment plant operator, the job will mainly need your supervisory skills. You’ll oversee the treatment of wastewater. You’ll also supervise the production of drinking water from the treatment plant.

You’ll monitor the treatment system and ensure all processes meet standards. This is one of the great jobs in West Virginia, where you will manually do a spot test of water to check quality. Your daily assignments will ensure that your water treatment plant meets state standards.

You are expected to supervise people, so your communication skills should be top-notch. You can look for work within the local government in West Virginia. The jobs are usually full-time in nature, and you will work on-site.

So there you have it. A wide range of careers await you in the Mountain State. You’ll enjoy excellent job security and career growth. Great jobs mean more openings to scale up your career to a business or a consultancy. So, when are you making your career move?