The Sims 4 Careers

Guide to Job Rewards, Pay Rates and Bonuses

The Sims 4 features Careers like all other games in the franchise. Your Sim will go to work on average 4-5 times per week and earn an hourly wage. Getting promotions earns you rewards, more money, and steepens the requirements for further advancement. This Guide to Careers in The Sims 4 links to detailed information and lists of all of the job levels, ideal moods, promotion requirements, and provides advice that will help you to get promoted quickly.

Getting Started

Getting a Job and Working Efficiently

Use your Sim's Phone or Computer to Find a Job. All jobs pay each day you work, allowing you to gradually build up your home. Management of Needs and Emotion before work is essential to getting Promoted quickly. Press 'J' to view each Career level's Promotion requirements. You will find that job levels scale with Skill, and by level 10 you should be mastering that skill.

Therefore, pick an Aspiration that is tied to the job you want and pursue those goals at the same time. If you picked an Aspiration that isn't tied to your job or skills, know you can change Aspirations at any time, even after completing one. Tying these 3 things together, raising Skills, pursuing Career Levels related to those Skills, and completing Aspiration Milestones, will help your Sim establish themselves faster.

Daily Task, Ideal Emotion and Job Performance

Press 'J' and hover your mouse over the Performance meter to see your Job's Daily Task and Ideal Emotion. Doing the Daily Task helps your Sim's Career Performance, and each career or different career branches, may have different Daily Tasks for your Sim. Also, try to go to work with your Sim in the Ideal Emotion. These are two major things you can do to help your Sim get promoted faster, assuming you have also fulfilled the Promotion Requirements , which appear as a checklist on the Jobs panel.

Sometimes, you may want to Work Hard or increase Skills while at Work.

Work Tones - Working Hard, or getting Moodlets

Click on your Sim's portrait at the bottom-left area of the screen while they are at work, and you can select the type of work they will do. You may work on increasing relationships with Co-Workers, increase Skills, work Normally, or Work Hard, increasing the amount of stress your Sim suffers while on the job, but increasing Performance. In the example above, a Criminal Boss can possibly get in the right mood by intimidating Lackeys. This will sometimes make him Confident, and you may then switch to Work Hard or something like that once they're in the Ideal Mood. It's generally best to just use Work Hard. Use something to develop Skills or Relationships if your Sim is really close to a promotion and you know you've got the promotion for sure. Every Career is different, and others may unlock at higher levels, so explore your options as your Sim is Promoted. This is also how you may leave Work Early without completely skipping out.

Career Branches

Each Career has two Branches you can choose from that give different bonuses. If you're unsure which to pick, view the guides below, but know that once you can't change tracks without reloading the game. You can go into another career, but a Master of the Real can't change to become a Patron of the Arts (Painting career). Every level of each Career will give your Sim something new. Some high-level Careers will offer more work hours than others, and on different days. Work until you're an Elder, and your Sim can retire, receiving money based on their status in the chosen Career Track.

Note that you cannot choose the other branch once you've selected one . This means if you want to try them both out, you should make a save game before it branches. You can tell by hovering over the career icon in the career interface. When it says X and X (two careers) as the next level, you know it's going to branch!

Use your Sim's phone to take a paid Vacation Day up to 24h before Work starts

Vacation Days

All Careers start with 3 Vacation days. As your Sim works shifts without missing, they will gradually accrue more of these, which give you pay and no penalty for missing the day's work. You can literally save up WEEKS of vacation days if you so choose, but will lose them if you switch Careers. It can give your Sim time to skill up for the next promotion or simply take a day out with the family. You need to use the phone to take a Vacation Day, and may do so as early as 24h before the next shift. If it isn't available, it's too soon. You are also able to call in just before work, if you like, and face no penalty unlike reality.

Overmax Career Levels

A patch added the ability for Sims to continue to receive rewards for continuing to fill the performance bar at level 10. This means more money for players who continue to do well at their careers, and a reason to continue trying to go in the best mood possible. By that time, you should have the hang of going into work in the right mood, and completing your daily tasks so that you can ensure your Sim is getting optimal money to pass to future generations. That, or fund their entertainment while they enjoy immortality!

Careers Enhance Skills

While you can make money with most Skills in the game, the Careers compliment them and enhance your money-making potential. You will generally work fewer hours at the top, earn substantially more per hour, and get to use your Skills as a primary money maker. The Career Rewards make pursuing a related career very much worth it, as you will get items to help influence your Sims' emotions. Click on reward objects and you'll often find the option to enable an Emotional Aura, which will make your Sim better at their chosen skill.

Teen Careers

While I haven't yet written on Teen Careers, justproud2b on our forum did. You can get the hourly rates etc. here

Get to Work lets you control your Sim on the job, and you may choose to stay late if you're looking to get promoted faster.

Active Careers

The Sims 4 Get to Work Expansion Pack adds Active Careers to the game: Scientist, Detective, and Doctor. You get the choice whether or not you'll view and control your Sim at work, meaning you can send them to work autonomously like any other Career. When in control, you will have a variety of tasks to complete while on the job. The more of these tasks you complete - from serious ones directly related to the Career, to those like gossiping with co-workers - the higher your performance for the day.

Active Careers' shifts are generally long enough that you can meet a lot of objectives while there, and if you so choose you can click the little timer icon to stay late or leave early. I recommend staying late if your Sim hasn't filled the performance bar for the day, as you're more likely to get promoted.

Further Info

You can learn more in Metro's Job Tips page where he explains some of the basics to getting promoted faster in any career track.

Compare Careers

All the top-level jobs can be compared in the table at the bottom of this page. Click here to compare top level Careers for the total pay per week and total number of hours worked.

Career Cheats

The Sims 4 offers Career Cheats if you'd like to skip leveling a career at any time and get instant promotions. It's also possible to promote children in grade school/high school (base game), drama club (Get Famous), or scouting (Seasons). Players who want objects that cannot be purchased without career levels will find a cheat there that removes these requirements.

The Sims 4 Career List

Actor or Actress Get Famous (Guide)

Game Description: The spotlight calls, the cameras are focused, and you are ready for your closeup. It is up to you to breathe energy into the words of the script and really make the characters come alive.

Career Branches: None. Actors must join one of four talent agencies (two unlock midway through the acting skill). Talent agencies line you up with gigs, which are your source of income. The only career with no schedule at time of writing.

Astronaut Career (Guide)

Game Description: Who doesn't dream of going to space? Become an Astronaut and the galaxy will be your playground.

Career Branches: Space Ranger and Interstellar Smuggler

Athlete Career (Guide)

Game Description: An athlete requires physical strength, speed, endurance, and intelligence. Start a career where enthusiastic fans will shout your name, wear your jersey and remember your feats forever.

Career Branches: Professional Athlete and Bodybuilder

Business Career (Guide)

Game Description: Synergy! Efficiency! Planfulness! If the mere sound of these industry buzzwords gets you buzzing, then a career in business might just be the right fit for you!

Career Branches: Management and Investor

Civil Designer (Guide)

Game Description: As a Civil Designer, get involved in planning and designing solutions to all kinds of environmental problems, and chat to your fellow Sims about how to make their world a better place to live.

Career Branches: Green Technician and Civic Planner

Conservationist (Guide)

Game Description: You've watched every nature documentary out there, and you know just how much the planet is in danger. From educating the public to performing research expeditions, you want to truly make a difference. Change won't happen overnight, but keep at it and your hard work can lead to thriving ecosystems!

Career Branches: Environmental Manager and Marine Biologist

Criminal Career (Guide)

Game Description: Not every Sim wants to play by the rules. You can make tons of Simoleons and have fun, too, as an outlaw.

Career Branches: Boss Branch and Oracle Branch

Critic Career - City Living (Guide)

Game Description: Everyone has an opinion. But not everyone is paid to have it! Sims who feel they have superior judgment can enter the Critic Career. Whether it' the foods or the arts, your Sim will have something to say about it, and others WILL listen.

Career Branches: Arts Critic and Food Critic

Culinary Career (Guide)

Game Description: Anyone can make dinner or mix a drink at home. The Culinary Career is for those who want to take it to another level and make money doing it.

Career Branches: Chef and Mixologist

Detective Career - Get to Work (Guide)

Game Description: Do you want to be the type of cop who's never really off-duty? If so, this job's for you and we've got the rewards to support that unhealthy lifestyle! Unlock outfits like your Police Uniform to wear as pajamas. Teach your teen a valuable lesson for that C+ by dressing them in Prisoner Coveralls and transforming their bedroom into a virtual jail cell complete with Prison Bar Walls and a decorative Security Camera. As a bonus, you can keep an eye on them with your very own One-Way Mirror.

Career Branches: None. This is an Active Career where you follow your Sim to work.

Doctor Career - Get to Work (Guide)

Game Description: Who doesn't want to be held responsible for another Sim's health and well-being? A Doctor who can advance in the medical ranks will find themselves rewarded with objects like a Standing Surgical Light and a Full-Sized Skeleton to brighten up the home nursery. To make the deal extra sweet, you'll be able to unlock your very own Hospital Scrubs and Patient Gowns so you can play Doctor at home!

Career Branches: None. This is an Active Career where you follow your Sim to work.

Education Discover University (Guide)

Game Description: Shape tomorrow's minds with a career in Education. Thought, at times, challenging, there are few jobs quite as rewarding.

Career Branches: Administrator or Professor

Engineer Discover University (Guide)

Game Description: There are many problems in the world that require modern and creative solutions. Take your love of technology and pursue a career in engineering to solve the world's problems with computers and mechanical gadgetry!

Career Branches: Computer Engineer and Mechanical Engineer

Entertainer Career (Guide)

Game Description: You've wanted your name in the lights from the time you could spell it, maybe even before. Answer your calling and claim your fame as a professional entertainer, either making the audience laugh with you or melting their hearts with your melodies.

Career Branches: Musician and Comedian

Freelancer (Guide)

Game Description: Be your own boss! Set your own work schedule! Sounds good, right? If you're both self-disciplined and determined, a career as a freelancer may be the right path for you. Multiple trades available to work within; agencies are standing by to connect you with eager clients today!

Career Branches: Writer, Programmer, Artist

Gardener Career - Seasons (Guide)

Game Description: You've always had a green thumb, but now you think you can earn some green with it. You'll start by doing a lot of planting and gardening, but keep at it, and you can find success in the science, or art, in doing so.

Career Branches: Botanist and Floral Designer

Law - Discover University (Guide)

Game Description: Sims who pursue a career in law are in a unique position to help others with their legal problems, champion causes, and further the public good (or not). That fancy paycheck doesn't hurt either!

Career Branches: Judge and Private Attorney

Military StrangerVille (Guide)

Game Description: Physical fitness and discipline will be the keys to success in the Military career. Rising through the ranks will not come easy unless you can demonstrate your physical prowess as well as your ability to recruit and be a leader. Will you pursue the path of a Grand Marshal, or will you follow a more secretive path to uncover what others might be hiding?

Career Branches: Officer and Covert Operator

Painter Career (Guide)

Game Description: Create your own world with a few strokes of the brush! Make a place for yourself in the art world with hyper-real masterpieces or abstract works of unsettling beauty.

Career Branches: Master of the Real Branch and Patron of the Arts

Politician Career - City Living (Guide)

Game Description: Join a life of public service! From protesting against the unjust, to gathering donations for good causes, or even collecting the occasional bribe as a "means to an end". Politics is always interesting.

Career Branches: Politician and Charity Organizer

Scientist Career - Get to Work (Guide)

Game Description: Calling all brains! Are you the nerdy type who aspires to one day wear tin foil on your head and decorate your studio with huge bubbly tanks? A Scientist who proves they've got the gray matter to change the world as we know it can unlock new outfits like the UFO hunter or objects like a swanky Chemistry Lab for concocting new inventions and serums.

Career Branches: None. This is an Active Career where you follow your Sim to work.

Social Media Career (Guide)

Game Description: What's trending? Where's the best food in town? Who's the most interesting celebrity? Start a career in Social Media to be the person that answers these questions for their followers. Blog and check-in at venues to keep followers coming back for more.

Career Branches: Internet Personality and Public Relations

Secret Agent Career (Guide)

Game Description: Live Life unnoticed as a covert operative. From infiltrating enemy headquarters to the art of interrogation, the more you learn, the less you'll be known.

Career Branches: Diamond Agent and Villain

Style Influencer (Guide)

Game Description: By identifying the right colors, the trendy patterns, the unseen ensemble pairings, and identifying the right person to act as a vehicle for such insight, the Style Influencer can twist the world towards a more cohesive end.

Career Branches: Stylist and Trend Setter

Tech Guru Career (Guide)

Game Description: Who needs college with programming skills like yours? Opportunity is out there, ripe for the picking, and you and your big brain are ready to pluck away.

Career Branches: eSport Gamer and Start Up Entrepreneur

Writer Career (Guide)

Game Description: Get paid to express your ideas with beautiful turns of phrase, and words--wonderful words!

Career Branches: Author Branch and Journalist Branch

Compare Careers' Money-Making Potential

Thanks to Forum member melbrewer367 for giving me this idea. The following table lists all top-level jobs by total earned per week and is meant to help you decide what Career to pick for your Sim in order to make the most money. This includes both max-level jobs for each of the ten Careers. There is a flow to the table in that you get $/hour, hours worked, then the pay earned in that day, days worked, thus the total earned for the week. For those of you looking for efficiency, I've bolded two of the best scores - (highest per hour) and also most per day, though I bolded the top two there because Diamond Agents work 15 hours and that is far higher than any other. For those who want fewest days worked, I bolded those with the current minimum of 2 - both writer/painter - appropriately, since those careers can earn competitive wages working from home in those branches. Fewest hours (5) have also been bolded for some Careers. Remember that Careers also give rewards, and the value of those cannot be quantified because it's up to you to decide what you want. You can browse the career pages to learn a bit about some of the rewards you'll unlock along the way.

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Careers labeled (WFH) indicate you can choose to work from home. See above for how that works. This lets you earn extra money during the work day as you only need to complete a task to maintain performance. Earnings are the same.