Career



Sims need a job to pay the bills and buy things. There are many careers available.

Career Tracks
The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and their expansions each have several career tracks. A career track is a group of jobs with a similar theme that a Sim must progress through by getting promotions.

Promotions
Sims can earn promotions primarily by having the correct skills and enough friends. The amount of friends they need and the skills they must have are highlighted on the job panel. But besides just having the correct skills there are other things that are important to getting a sim promoted.
 * A maxed job performance bar means a very high chance of promotion if the sim in question has the friends and skills required for promotion. Job performance increases when a sim goes to work in a good mood. If a sim has the required skills and friends, platinum mood will virtually guarantee a promotion.
 * The chance of a promotion increases if the sim has a high aspiration level and decreases the further up the career they get. Often the chance for a promotion appears in a chance card.
 * If a Sim has a relative higher up the career than they are there is a small chance they will pull strings to advance them in the career.
 * If Nightlife is installed and a sim has a good date with an employee of higher rank in the career this may also affect their chances of getting promoted. It should be noted however that this employee must be at least 2 job levels higher than the sim being promoted.
 * If a teen grows up into an adult and already has a job, they will automatically be promoted.

Demotions
Demotions in the Sims 2 work in a different ways. If a sim has a low aspiration level, loses too many skill points or answers a chance card wrong there is a chance the sim will be demoted or fired. If either happens the sim will come home immediately, have a major drop in fun and comfort and spend a real-life minute moping by the pavement. They will also get a bad memory and autonomous reactions will occur in which the sim will start crying and thinking about the demotion throughout the day.

Chance cards
Any time a sim is at work they can encounter a chance card. Chance cards consist of text describing a predicament or decision a sim must make. The player can choose one of two options (or press ignore) to complete the scenario. A good or bad result is then randomly determined. Ignoring a chance card has no good or bad effects.

Career reward objects
A new item in The Sims 2 is a career reward object. As sims progress through their career they earn a Career Reward Object which lets sims earn skills at a faster rate. The sim who earned the object is not the only one who can use the reward. They can teach other sims how to use the object so they too can earn skill points faster.

Note: If your Sim moves after putting the Career Reward Object on their lot they will lose the object and have to earn it again. Although now that sims have inventories starting with Nightlife, you can remedy this by making sure to place the object in your sim's inventory before you move.

In The Sims 3, there are no longer career reward objects, but there are still rewards. They are such things as extra money, positive mood/moodlets, and new social interactions. Also, there are multiple rewards for each career, rather than just one per career.

Pay Raises
Pay raises come with promotion in all the games, but in The Sims 3, pay raises don't end once your sims reaches the top of a career. Each time the performance meter fills, your sim gets a pay raise.