Where to move? (Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg: real estate, apartment, lease)

[movingfwd]

I am currently looking for a place to call home. I am 29 years old and single. I have 12 years Customer Service Experience and 4 of those years in Management and a degree in Computer Information Systems. I currently live in Atlanta, GA and I am from Canada originally. I also want some place low on crime. I want to start looking now since I have 5 months on my apartment lease and I would like to find a job and hope to move there then. What cities are best for jobs? Anything helpful I would glad to hear feedback. Thank you.

[tbailey1138]

Check out the Huntington area. Huntington is the 2nd largest city in WV and has a lot to offer. I'm 28 myself and there's rarely a lack of things to do here for people of all ages. Between concerts at the Civic Arena, performances at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center, Comedians at the Funny Bone (Pauly Shore and Aries Spears were here last month), the Huntington Heroes Arena Football team, Marshall University Sports, the Huntington Symphony Orchestra,and various concert series and live music venues, there's plenty to do here. The area also has some very nice parks with plans to connect most of them with more jogging and biking paths. Huntington has also had a lot of good news lately with respect to job growth and new businesses, including CSX transferring 80 new jobs here from Jacksonville, FL. One of the newer business developments here is Pullman Square, a lifestyle center in the heart of downtown built about 4 years ago. It adds a nice atmosphere to downtown along with several wonderful restaurants and shops. If you want to see Huntington, go rent "We are Marshall" with Matthew McConoughey and Matthew Fox. Most of it was filmed here and it has some great shots of the city. Here are some links that you may find helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions about the area.
Tim
Huntington, West Virginia (WV) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders
#100 Huntington WV - Forbes.com
City of Huntington, West Virginia
The Greater Huntington Community Web Portal
Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District
Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce
http://www.huntingtonmall.com/home/index.ch2
Pullman Square - Restaurants Shopping Entertainment
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
Welcome To Your Huntington Funny Bone
Big Sandy Superstore Arena - Huntington, WV
Marshall Artists Series

[ForeverWestVirginian]

Charleston and Huntington are great locations for jobs as well as Morgantown. If you are looking for a low crime area, I'd suggest Hurricane it's between Huntington and Charleston. Weston is a nice city too but I'm not sure about the jobs. The Caanan Valley area is very beautiful and in the summer there aren't a lot of folks because of it's the off season for skiing. I'm not sure if any of this helped you or not, hope you will love WV as much as I!

[David Kennedy]

About 15 years ago a big push was made to bring call centers to Wv. All the bigger towns have them. In our area most of them pay about $8 to start...the better ones pay $12. That is the peon wage and most of those in management are at $15 with bonuses..I see hundreds of cars in the parking lot and do not hear much complaining from those who work jobs...much of the feedback is very positive...the state has gotten involved and moves a lot of ex-cons through these vendors. Several of the information hotlines to our State Parks and Office of Tourism are run through the prison system and as these people are paroled, they are moved into the call centers...
I don't know how Wv stacks up with other states on this, but I'm sure they copied someone else...
If I were considering this venue in Wv, I would seek out Grant or Hardy county...the new interstate is opening this region to everything...it will be comparable to the I-81 corridor going down through the Shenandoah Valley...Winchester to Roanoke...much other opportunity will lie in this region as it becomes more accessable..

[Retired Navy]

You might try sending a resume to Alcan Rolled Products in Ravenswood, WV. Nice quiet little town about 35 miles from either Parkersburg or Charleston. Also might find something in your field at the Toyota Plant in Buffalo. Your best bet might be to locate a town where you would like to reside and contact West Virginia Job Services in that area. You could also try looking for a job with the state in as much as the state is the largest employer in the state!!

[David Kennedy]

For that matter: Alcan, Pratt/Whitney, Bombardier, NASA, Lockheed/Martin, ISR, Mantec, Galaxy-Global and about 80 other big name high-tech companies are located in the Bridgeport-Farimont area...more on the way as some very VERY big projects have been funded...