The associated production of a W boson with a jet originating from either a light parton or heavy-flavor quark is studied in the forward region using proton-proton collisions. The analysis uses data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.0 and 2.0 fb(-1) collected with the LHCb detector at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. The W bosons are reconstructed using the W -> mu nu decay and muons with a transverse momentum, p(T), larger than 20 GeV in the pseudorapidity range 2.0 < eta < 4.5. The partons are reconstructed as jets with p(T) > 20 GeV and 2.2 < eta < 4.2. The sum of the muon and jet momenta must satisfy p(T) > 20 GeV. The fraction of W + jet events that originate from beauty and charm quarks is measured, along with the charge asymmetries of the W+b and W+c production cross sections. The ratio of the W + jet to Z + jet production cross sections is also measured using the Z -> mu mu decay. All results are in agreement with Standard Model predictions.