While there are a number of salaried jobs at VA, there are also numerous opportunities for hourly employment. These full-time and part-time careers offer many of the same great benefits and can be a great way to get your start in VA, serving and supporting Veterans.
While you take advantage of the competitive salaries, great insurance, education support and paid time-off, you might find an opportunity for advancement you never have expected.
Open opportunities
Right now, there are dozens of types of open positions that need hard-working, dedicated employees. These jobs keep our facilities running efficiently behind the scenes and provide unique ways to support the VA mission of serving Veterans.
Air conditioning equipment mechanic
As with any large operation, VA facilities have HVAC systems that need regular maintenance and repairs. As an air conditioning equipment mechanic, you’ll install, maintain and repair all air conditioning and refrigeration equipment throughout the building. You may also be tasked with fixing the kind of walk-in type refrigeration boxes and low temperature boxes that you would find in pharmacies, labs and even kitchens.
Boiler plant operator
Also in the maintenance family at VA, you could find hourly work as a boiler plant operator. In this role, you would be the one responsible for the entire steam distribution, hot water system and boiler operations in a facility. Without you, there’s no hot water for showers or heat in the building!
Cook
While the name pretty much says it all, there’s quite a bit that goes into being a cook at a VA facility. As with someone working in a restaurant, your work may consist of grilling up breakfasts one minute and shifting to cold cuts for lunch the next. You’ll also be working in large quantities, given that you could be making meals for hundreds of patients at a time. Still, if you know your way around a large kitchen, you would be welcome at VA.
Environmental service technician
When it comes to keeping our facilities clean for our Veterans and visitors, environmental service technicians and housekeeping aides are our experts. Whether you’re mopping floors, vacuuming carpets, washing windows, collecting trash or filling dispensers, the work you do makes our facilities not just clean, but safe.
Food service worker
As with our cooks, food service workers work in our cafeteria environments, but you’re at the front of the house, setting up food stations and serving food to Veterans and visitors. And when the rush is over, you chip in around the kitchen with cleaning and maintenance.
Materials handler supervisor
Ever wonder how we keep our facilities stocked and ready for anything? As a material handler supervisor, you would oversee the setup, movement, rearrangement and traffic flow for deliveries and resupply orders. General supplies, construction materials, medical supplies, high value items or electronic systems could all pass through your hands on any given day, and when it arrives, you’ll be the one who knows who needs it and where it goes.
Hourly employment
Searching for hourly employment jobs like these (and others) is easy to do. Once you start your search at USAJobs.com, look for jobs posted as “WG” or “WS.” Wage grade (WG) is the term used to describe non-supervisory Federal Wage System employees, while wage supervisors (WS) are supervisory FWS employees.
Government agencies use these designations for jobs that typically fill non-clinical, non-administrative needs, and VA is no different. WS and WG careers do vital work at VA and are often the unsung heroes that keep the organization running behind-the-scenes.
Work at VA
If you’re looking for a great place to start your VA career, these hourly roles provide vital support to the Veterans who rely on us for care.
- HEAR from our employees.
- LEARN about the benefits of a VA career.
- FIND your local VA facility.
- SEARCH for opportunities at VACareers.VA.Gov.
Positions listed in this post were open at the time of publication. All current available positions are listed at USAJobs.gov.
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Why is the VA still wearing mask when it’s not epidemic anymore?
When you think about from the prospective of what that facility means to so many people, the fact that not everyone is vaccinated, and understand that COVID “has not been eradicated” the VA providers and healthcare workers cannot afford to be ill when the majority of the that population desperately need them to care for them. It’s a minor inconvenience for some, so care can be provided to the many. The focus and mission of the military has always been utilitarian, Meaning the greatest good for the greatest number. It honestly would make no sense to be concerned with possibly inconveniencing a few people and compromise the mission of that organization. Ask yourself if they shut down due to a Covid outbreak where would we all have to go for healthcare then. That should answer your question…