Careers Introduction

Careers Introduction

The Sims 3: Ambitions is really a career-based expansion, so jobs and things that are like jobs are an important element for the game.  The fact that this is a well-rounded game series that offers a lot to do (most gamers will never be able to do everything in the game with one Sim family) you will naturally need to balance the work and the play, but there is plenty of opportunity to turn play into work if you choose to follow the Bohemian-Slacker path...  Or work into play if you enjoy fighting fires, being a secret agent, or chef, you know, whatever...  It is only work if you look at it that way, right?

There are a few factoids that need to be addressed about Careers -- which is of course why this Careers Introduction section is here!

First, as you may well be aware, the base game and the World Adventures expansion included careers and professions as well as just plain old jobs as part of their content, and save for a few specific cases those remain pretty much unchanged -- which means your Sim goes off to work their shift and you do not see them again until it is over. 

The exceptions to the above include the Medical Career -- which has had Doctor added to it and that side of the career has interaction elements -- but in addition to that some of the base careers have been tweaked -- for instance their scripted elements and positions have been increased, and extra elements have been added that include pathing -- choosing a specific professional focus as part of the career.

Second, the Bohemian-Slacker path has been vastly expanded!  To start with, your slacker can now head on down to City Hall and register as self-employed.  When they do that though, they have to declare which of the slacker-based professions they are registering under -- the Artist path now includes Painter and Sculptor, there is Musician, Inventor, and Fisherman and Gardener -- and of course there are some you cannot register like Collector, or pursuing the Handyman trade by leveling your Repair Skills and then taking every job you are offered through the Wish/Goal system...

A professional Butterfly Catcher?

-- Thoughts on Wine --

Many players consider the profession of the Vintner (well, technically in The Sims 3 that would be the Nectar Maker but hey, it is Wine, they just cannot call it that because of the kids who play, we all know that!) as one of the most honorable of the Bohemian-Slacker professions because of the formal process that is involved and how it promotes the use of a complementary skill, Gardening, which in bygone eras was also an honorable pursuit of the gentleman...

Whether you consider it that way or not, if it is approached with forethought and strategy, being a Vintner/Nectar Maker can be one of the most profitable of the Bohemian-Slacker professions, it just takes longer to get to that point than for most of the others, but that is really the point isn't it?  While the traditional careers all revolve around structured formats that require the Sim to accomplish specific tasks and meet specified goals, they present as a path that will take X amount of time, and X amount of effort, but will in the end only pay what they pay, and it is the same for every Sim!

With the Bohemian-Slacker path however you get what you put in -- the harder you work the more money you make -- and for that alone it numbers among the most attractive of career paths.  When you factor in that your Sim owns his own time, which means they work when they choose to, and play when they choose to, and can go on holiday to some foreign land when they choose to, and hey, that is starting to look like a really good deal!

-- Final Words of Advice --

If you are playing the game with the timer-extension to Epic you will have plenty of time to master any number of careers, so try not to worry about that too much and just have as much fun as you can, right?  That is not the final word on the matter though, it is just a good thought...

The final word on the matter is this: Ambitions is a game about work, but it is also a game about life in many ways, because what the Sims does is simulate what real life can be like -- and speaking from personal experience I can tell you that spending your life doing nothing but work can be a grinding hell like no other.  So as you level your Sims and as you explore these new careers and master the old ones, try to remember to balance out their lives. 

Give them a hobby or three -- have them start a collection -- visit the museum or the art gallery every now and then.  Eat out!  Take your significant other on dates.  Do not just work, eat, and sleep, because hey, where is the fun in that?

And that is the final word of the Introduction of Careers!

Workaholic Trait Notes: In each of the career sections below there is a list of helpful Traits that will contribute to your success in that career.  The one Trait that you might think would be present in all of them and yet is not is the Workaholic Trait.  The reason for that is actually simple really...  The Trait has some minor negative impact on careers in general, which we cover below.

First, when you combine workaholic with certain other Traits you can obtain some very desirable results -- for example when it is combined with the Schmoozer and Ambitious Traits, what you end up with is a Sim who is incredibly amazing at obtaining promotions and pay raises.

The Ambitious Trait helps them to make the right decisions at work automatically, and makes them more effective at requesting raises and promotions, while the Schmoozer Trait boosts the success rate when your Sim asks for something from another Sim.

Crafting Topiary starts with a large bush!

While the Workaholic is better at avoiding stress at work -- they actually receive a positive moodlet just for being at work -- and they are able to select and make use of the "work hard" option more often without negative effects (usually it induces severe stress in a Sim if it is chosen too often or too many days in a row), it also allows them to choose to work at home on their computer if they have one, and that helps to boost job performance in easily detectable ways...

The downside though is that when your Sim skips a work day they get a negative moodlet as a result.  If they miss a work day without having arranged for unpaid time off in advance they not only get a negative moodlet, they actually have a hidden counter that increments and can wreak havoc on your efforts to control a stable emotional state in your Sim depending upon the other Traits that they have...

In addition to the above, which is a fairly significant concern, there is also the fact that Sims with the Workaholic Trait do not retire from their career like normal Sims do -- which means they will want to keep working in their career until they die instead of retiring and receiving their retirement package like any sane person would want to do.  This is particularly problematic if your plan is to have your Sim master their career and then retire to a Bohemian-Slacker profession, since they will not want to leave their job!

For that reason I am telling you about both the benefits and the drawbacks of that Trait here, so you can decide for yourself if you want to use it...  If you are planning to rely upon the usual income scheme for the retired Sim augmented by non-traditional profession income, that could be a real problem for you... I am just saying.