Choosing the Best Traits for Each Career

[Metropolis Man]

I decided to post my own list of traits I would choose for a Sim for every Career tract. You’ll notice that only two traits are listed for every career. That’s because for career Sims there are 3 must-have traits: Over-Emotional, Ambitious, and Workaholic. Well, maybe “must-have” is too strong. “Helpful” might be a better word choice if you’re seeking to get those promotions as quickly as possible. But, if you’re patient and are not seeking a promotion nearly every single day, then almost any mix of traits will work for a career Sim.

Over-Emotional: This is the mother of all Sims 3 traits. And Mood is the basic barometer for every single career. Provided you can get your Sim out the door very happy, then the Over-Emotional trait simply amplifies their good feelings by a whopping 25%. It takes about a solid 3 hours of pre-work prepping to really get everything green — a shower, using the toilet, eating a good meal, and finally some Woo Hoo. Woo Hoo is key because it will pump both Social and Fun.

Ambitious: Ambitious Sims’ work performance bar will rise a little faster during the workday.

Workaholic: A Workaholic Sim has the “Work Hard” tone as the default setting. That tone raises the performace bar much faster than the other tones. And the real benefit is that the Work Hard tone doesn’t hit the fun bar as hard as would happen with a non-Workaholic Sim. Choosing “Work Hard” for non-Workaholics really makes the fun meter tank and by mid-workday, they could easily be stressed out.

Business and Political: Charismatic and Schmoozer
Relationships are a biggie in these 2 careers which is why I lumped them together. Neither Business or Political careers have your Sim working on the weekend, so take advantage of that and plan targetted parties with co-workers and your boss.

Criminal (Thief): Athletic and whatever else you want — maybe Friendly to help your relationship with Accomplices.

Criminal (Evil): Athletic and Genius
The Logic barometer doesn’t kick in until level 8 of the Evil tract, but don’t wait until then to start gaining logic.

Culinary: Natural Cook and Green Thumb
Gardening and Cooking just go hand in hand for better results. If your Sim has a utility Sim/Spouse to help out, you can drop Green Thumb and maybe go with Friendly or Charismatic to assist with work relationships.

Journalism: Bookworm and Charismatic

Law Enforcement (Forensic): Genius and Artistic

Law Enforcement (Special Agent): Genius and Athletic
Writing lots of reports is a metric for both tracts of Law Enforcement, so another option is to drop one trait and add Bookworm to aid the writing speed. The Brave trait is also supposed to raise the work performance meter of Law Enforcement and Military career Sims faster. So, there’s more options here than with other careers.

Medical: Genius and Bookworm

Military: Athletic and Handy
Again, the Brave trait is another option.

Music (Rock Star): Artistic and Virtuoso
As soon as your Sim would hit level 10 I would drop Workaholic and just have them play for tips and pick up Loves the Outdoors.

Music (Symphonic): Artistic and Genius

Professional Sports: Athletic and Lucky
Carl mentions on the Guide that this may or may not help with the game record metric. But, even if it doesn’t the Lucky trait can help your Sim in other ways: geting raises, part-time collecting objects, etc. Another option is Friendly or Charismatic to assist with work relationships.

Science: Green Thumb and Handy
Fishing is also a work barometer, but it’s not a high requirement and doesn’t pop up until the end of the career. So, the Angler trait really isn’t necessary.

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Now, once you’ve hit the highest level of a career, if you choose to keep your Sim in that career to continue earning regular hourly raises, the Workaholic and Ambitious traits still hold merit. But, if you’re seeking a different route for your Sim after they’ve hit the top of their career, then I’d recommend giving them the Mid-Life Crisis reward and switching up their traits. If you’d go the self-employment route, then dropping Ambitious and Workaholic makes most sense.

[Pam]

Awesome work, Metro!  Thanks very much! 

[Metropolis Man]

You're welcome, Pam. To be honest, I hope some new careers are introduced in a future expansion. Careers really get the short end of the stick. And it's not hard to see why. With the amount of money a Sim can make from gardening, writing, painting, and especially guitar playing, it's tough to go the career route. Your Career Duos Challenge and my Centurian Couples Challenge saw abysmal participation. I think it's partly because careers just don't seem to hold the attention of players.

I can see that EA would not radically change the base salary of the various careers. But, what would bring some equality between self-employment and careers is higher hourly raises down the road. I think raises are what...somewhere around $40 to $60 an hour? And that never changes it seems. Every raise is the same. So, that's maybe an extra $300 simoleans for a day's work. It's just not a big incentive when a painter can knock out a painting for 10X that value or just plant a money tree seed.

And it's not just a money thing with me. With painting and writing and gardening, you're continually improving your end product and it may take quite a while before you have a bookshelf full of Masterpieces or 30 -50 Perfect money trees and Perfect life fruit plants. Careers are different. Most careers are so short-lived and take 2-3 weeks tops to hit lvl 10.

[e^(pi*i)]

Even though I realize that careers make way less money, I tend to favor careers over self-employment in general. I know that sounds kind of dumb, but it will seem pretty intelligent compared with this next fact; I find self-employment to be mind-numbing after a while. At least with jobs, when you're home from work, you're home from work, you know?

[Metropolis Man]

That's a good point. Going the self-employment route almost inevitably turns your Sim into a money-making robot simply because they're not punching a clock.

[e^(pi*i)]

Interesting way to put it. The Sims is actually a brainwashing technique to assimilate us all into the system!

EDIT:

I just realized I had a much more relevant thing to say regarding the actual content of this topic:

Is the over-emotional trait REALLY the best? How much does mood really affect progress? Because, using my non-over-emotional sims, I never have trouble getting them to get the best mood on their progress card. And, yes, I have tried the over-emotional trait many times, and I do like it, but I'm not addicted to it.

I just feel like, especially with the business career which has so many ways to improvise better job performance, that trait slot (as well as, perhaps, the other slots but I don't use workaholic enough to be able to share my experiences) could be much better used. (Party animal, for example, if used very well)

[Metropolis Man]

Is the over-emotional trait REALLY the best? How much does mood really affect progress?

"Best" is of course a subjective opinion. But, since I wrote the sentence it really isn't subjective. It's pure fact. 

Okay, seriously, I think Over-Emotional's main selling point is keeping the Mood work tone Outstanding all day long. It's not that it's tough to go to work with an Outstanding mood if you're not Over-Emotional. But, it's pretty tough to actually to go home and still have the mood be Outstanding just due to the natural drain. So, with Over-Emotional you still have the drain over a day of course, but since your mood is boosted 25%, then you've got more of a chance of the metric staying Outstanding because the drain will have less of a chance of changing the metric to the next lower notch.

[Pam]

I can see that EA would not radically change the base salary of the various careers. But, what would bring some equality between self-employment and careers is higher hourly raises down the road. I think raises are what...somewhere around $40 to $60 an hour? And that never changes it seems. Every raise is the same. So, that's maybe an extra $300 simoleans for a day's work. It's just not a big incentive when a painter can knock out a painting for 10X that value or just plant a money tree seed.

Actually, if you stay with a career after reaching level 10, your raises increase substantially.  The challenge always remains to keep your Sim on target with moods and such.  With each raise, the requirements for the next raise start over and are more difficult to achieve.  I've had careers go well over $1,000 per hour and that's a good bit of money for a week.

[sfsfsfgiants]

Thing is, though, is that as you get higher and higher in the career, you don't work as many days, which means less hours. So while working for $1,000 per hour is nice, if you work only three days a week, it doesn't add up as much as it could, if that makes sense.

I may be off there, but in my experience, the raises aren't as much as they could be because you work less often.

[Pam]

But with all those days off, you can pursue lots of other things like painting or guitar.  And still get very nice paychecks.  It's true that eventually, if your family gets extremely wealthy, the income will be insignificant.  But that takes several generations and Sims can live more than comfortably in the meantime with a steady career.  They also get nice perks from their jobs, like the awesome chef's refrigerator and the partrol car in Law Enforcement. 

[e^(pi*i)]

To this day, I have yet to max out in every career. In fact, I'd say I've only maxed out in half the careers, maybe even fewer.

[Carl]

Very nice compendium there, this was a good idea. And yep, you know i love over-emotional. I use it on almost every Sim I make as you can tell if you look at the lifetime wish walkthroughs I wrote.

[Pam]

Just to get on the record, too...  I don't use over-emotional for my Sims.  I don't question Metro's data or anything.  I just like other things better when I play. 

[samoht04]

Thinking about it, I've only got to the top on medical, but have always got within 1 promotion of the next level in all but three careers. Why? Because I get bored easily!

[Simbacat]

Thank you!this is very useful:)

[kat]

They also get nice perks from their jobs, like the awesome chef's refrigerator

Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but this is a truly awesome reward; you receive it when you reach level 10 in the chef career - you cannot purchase it through 'buy now'. It gives my sim a 'top appliance' moodlet not only when he eats food from it, but when he is merely in the same room! He has the over emotional trait so this gives him about a +37 (I think; this is from memory!) mood.
Just thought people might like to know that handy hint. Plus, food never seems to go off in it.

[Metropolis Man]

Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but this is a truly awesome reward; you receive it when you reach level 10 in the chef career - you cannot purchase it through 'buy now'. It gives my sim a 'top appliance' moodlet not only when he eats food from it...

I'm going to have to do a chef career one of these days. Haven't done that yet. I've had a cooking challenge bouncing in my head for a while called Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, so maybe I'll do one if that ever materializes. Kat, that 'top appliance' moodlet you described after one eats made me laugh because it's almost like a Sim would be eating the appliance to get the moodlet! I mean who the heck would be thinking of an appliance while they're eating unless you were actually consuming it — yummy!

[Tealeaf]

This thread is making me wonder about the over emotional trait.  I've never really played around with it that much, and I still have my doubts about it.   But it might be fun to test out.  Make two sims, one with the OE trait, one with something else, and all other traits the same.  Keep them in single family homes.  Play one to level 10 of some career, the other as well in the same career.  Make no money from anything other than the careers.  At the time of their promotion to 10, see how much money they've made.

I might give this a shot when I'm done with the perfectly happy challenge.  But if someone else wants to do it a well that's fine.  The more data points the better!

[Metropolis Man]

Tealeaf, it's not that OE is going to earn any career Sim any more money than a non-OE Sim. The power of that trait is in keeping a Sim happier for a longer period of time throughout the work day. So, the result is a slightly better work performance, and maybe (slight chance) a couple quicker promotions. So, the money made shouldn't be any different at all. But, the OE Sim might get to lvl 10 a day or two quicker.

[Pam]

It would still be interesting to test.  If the Sim's mood and happiness is overall much better, he should earn better and quicker raises and such.  It would add up in the long run.

[TheLostGirls]

I was making my mom a sim and she asked to be in the teacher career path because she is a teacher in the real world. LOL. After a few minutes of explaing the career choices, she grew frustrated. "You can be a criminal but not a teacher! That's messed up."

Her words not mine.

[jestina]

Brave for military and law enforcement. I think it helps boost career performance...at least it seems that way to me. The meters on my brave sims always appeared to be moving faster. Brave is good for lots of things, like not getting creepy moodlets, you don't freak out when adventuring, and of course you can beat up burglars. Brave also helps in asking for promotions.

And I think klepto may boost criminal career.

I think OE might be overrated some because i've never used it and my career sims can get promoted every day. Ambitious is good enough for that...and get multitasker reward early on. Keep up with career requirements and you'll zoom up the ladder fast. You don't have to worry about the potty in the morning before work because your sim will do that first thing upon arriving at the office. Just have a good meal ready, shower, and watch tv to fill fun if there's time(doubles as skilling time too by watching cooking, gardening, or fishing channel). I always splurge for the 8000 simoleon tv or steal one if I have a klepto

Schmoozer is great for careers that require sucking up like business and cooking.

Of course you could always woohoo your boss too I guess.

[Metropolis Man]

Brave for military and law enforcement. I think it helps boost career performance...at least it seems that way to me.

I mentioned that in the first post...

Law Enforcement (Special Agent): Genius and Athletic
Writing lots of reports is a metric for both tracts of Law Enforcement, so another option is to drop one trait and add Bookworm to aid the writing speed. The Brave trait is also supposed to raise the work performance meter of Law Enforcement and Military career Sims faster. So, there’s more options here than with other careers.

Brave also helps in asking for promotions....

How successful is that? Does the relationship w/boss have anything to do with getting a promotion? I'm not sure if I've ever successfully received a promotion just by asking for one. And it's not like I hadn't tried that's for sure.

I think OE might be overrated some because i've never used it and my career sims can get promoted every day. Ambitious is good enough for that...and get multitasker reward early on. Keep up with career requirements and you'll zoom up the ladder fast. You don't have to worry about the potty in the morning before work because your sim will do that first thing upon arriving at the office. Just have a good meal ready, shower, and watch tv to fill fun if there's time(doubles as skilling time too by watching cooking, gardening, or fishing channel). I always splurge for the 8000 simoleon tv or steal one if I have a klepto

Over-Emotional may be overrated. I'm coming around to think that. That's a good tip with the potty to save more time. I have noticed Sims use a bathroom at work but continue to have them use one before they go out the door out of habit. I think I'll stop. Especially in the upcoming career challenge.

[jestina]

Well, if you're in a situation near getting promoted that's when you can ask for it. Be in a good relationship with the boss(at least good friends I think) and discuss work. After discussing work the option to ask for a raise and promotion should come up...unless you've gotten one recently.

[jmz95]

Brave for military and law enforcement. I think it helps boost career performance...at least it seems that way to me.

I mentioned that in the first post...

Law Enforcement (Special Agent): Genius and Athletic
Writing lots of reports is a metric for both tracts of Law Enforcement, so another option is to drop one trait and add Bookworm to aid the writing speed. The Brave trait is also supposed to raise the work performance meter of Law Enforcement and Military career Sims faster. So, there’s more options here than with other careers.

Brave also helps in asking for promotions....

How successful is that? Does the relationship w/boss have anything to do with getting a promotion? I'm not sure if I've ever successfully received a promotion just by asking for one. And it's not like I hadn't tried that's for sure.

I think OE might be overrated some because i've never used it and my career sims can get promoted every day. Ambitious is good enough for that...and get multitasker reward early on. Keep up with career requirements and you'll zoom up the ladder fast. You don't have to worry about the potty in the morning before work because your sim will do that first thing upon arriving at the office. Just have a good meal ready, shower, and watch tv to fill fun if there's time(doubles as skilling time too by watching cooking, gardening, or fishing channel). I always splurge for the 8000 simoleon tv or steal one if I have a klepto

Over-Emotional may be overrated. I'm coming around to think that. That's a good tip with the potty to save more time. I have noticed Sims use a bathroom at work but continue to have them use one before they go out the door out of habit. I think I'll stop. Especially in the upcoming career challenge.

I have to agree with you on that Metro. I think OE is way overrated, no offense to Carl, because once you have the money, you can easily make up for the OE trait. I've never used it, but as much as it's been talked about on the forum, I don't think it makes that much a difference.

[Pam]

I think OE is way overrated, no offense to Carl, because once you have the money, you can easily make up for the OE trait.

I think Carl is having a change of heart after I did my test with Over-Emotional.

[sherlockholmes]

I've never used over-emotional. Here's why:
A 25 percent increase in moodlet to me isn't needed since well rested + good meal + Squeaky clean + Having a blast makes your Sim pretty much as happy as can be. Also, in the early stages, I push my Sims to and past the limit often. I exercise long after I'm filthy, I stay up until I'm exhausted, sometimes eat only when my Sim can't do anything else, work hard till I'm completely stressed etc. My Sims jump from extreme to extreme in order to succeed. So I don't want negative moodlets to overflow as well.

Also, I usually can use that free trait slot for something better or more fun - klepto, natural cook, neat, handy, etc. Something that has a definite physical effect on your Sim.

[Wova4]

I've started to really appreciate the Neurotic trait for career sims.  I seem to never have much time before the carpool arrives.  The freak out action is almost instantaneous so it can be squeezed in before hoping into the car.

It also delivers oodles of little wishes that are quickly completed.

[samoht04]

About the Brave Trait helping you get promotions, I had an 'event/opportunity' thing happen where I could either demand a promo or not.

[Leto85]

I can see that EA would not radically change the base salary of the various careers. But, what would bring some equality between self-employment and careers is higher hourly raises down the road. I think raises are what...somewhere around $40 to $60 an hour? And that never changes it seems. Every raise is the same. So, that's maybe an extra $300 simoleans for a day's work. It's just not a big incentive when a painter can knock out a painting for 10X that value or just plant a money tree seed.

Actually, if you stay with a career after reaching level 10, your raises increase substantially.  The challenge always remains to keep your Sim on target with moods and such.  With each raise, the requirements for the next raise start over and are more difficult to achieve.  I've had careers go well over $1,000 per hour and that's a good bit of money for a week.

And for that reason I have doubts about if the self employing way of money making is indeed better than having a job. The first sim I've made was at the top of the political career and makes over $3000 per day. Although with painting eventually you can paint 4 to 6 large paintings in a row when you finally reach the 200 paintings, which will be worth over 7000 each, but that will take such a long time I really think that self employing and having a career are a bit of equal.

[Metropolis Man]

I've never delved too deeply into transfiguration, but it's supposed to be king as far as money making. But, I do know all about playing for tips with the Guitar and no career comes even remotely close to what you can earn as a guitarist. If you go absolutely insane with the exploit it's possible to earn a million simoleans over the course of one weekend in front of the Theatre. I've done it. To get 10k individual tips is pretty crazy.

[Saltypaws]

I had taken my sim on Saturday to play for tips and I guess I had forgotten her for some reason and even switched households, when I went back on sunday night, she was still playing in front of the theatre and earned 259,000 simoleons.  I thought that was so funny, so if you want to max a skill, just leave them and come back, lol.  Works for chess too, I found that out.

[danefaith]

I think my favorite thing about this thread is the idea that achieving your lifelong career goals and a mid-life crisis should go hand and hand.

[Leto85]

I had taken my sim on Saturday to play for tips and I guess I had forgotten her for some reason and even switched households, when I went back on sunday night, she was still playing in front of the theatre and earned 259,000 simoleons.  I thought that was so funny, so if you want to max a skill, just leave them and come back, lol.  Works for chess too, I found that out.

They don't are in a really bad mood when you find them back?

[Saltypaws]

That is the weird thing, their energy is down, but that is it.  You would think after two days, they would be a little on the  grouchy side, lol.

[MasterSiwel]

Now, once you’ve hit the highest level of a career, if you choose to keep your Sim in that career to continue earning regular hourly raises, the Workaholic and Ambitious traits still hold merit. But, if you’re seeking a different route for your Sim after they’ve hit the top of their career, then I’d recommend giving them the Mid-Life Crisis reward and switching up their traits. If you’d go the self-employment route, then dropping Ambitious and Workaholic makes most sense.

You've just inspired me to work on "Metro" Sims.

[Leto85]

That is the weird thing, their energy is down, but that is it.  You would think after two days, they would be a little on the  grouchy side, lol.

Maybe that is just the case with sims you don't control yourself. Because they can not take good care of themselves the game has made a thing of slower degreeing their needs. At least slower than the sims under your control. I'm not sure if this is true, but it would make sense to me it if does.

[Aiwe]

I've started to really appreciate the Neurotic trait for career sims.  I seem to never have much time before the carpool arrives.  The freak out action is almost instantaneous so it can be squeezed in before hoping into the car.

It also delivers oodles of little wishes that are quickly completed.

I think Neurotic is one of my favorite traits full stop, Neurotic Sims do all sorts of fun things, but in terms of keeping mood up during work or school it beats just about anything else hands down for one simple reason: No stress for eight hours. Assuming a work shift of eight hours or less, which many of them are, that means a Neurotic Sim can work hard for the entire shift without getting the stressed negative moodlet, even Workaholics will be stressed by the end of a long shift of working hard.

[Metropolis Man]

...even Workaholics will be stressed by the end of a long shift of working hard.

Possibly. It all depends of if the Fun bar was maxed when walking out the door to go to work.

[Schipperke]

I've never had a workaholic come home stressed from work.  But all my sims know the rule:  get your fun need up before work.  Where my sims do get stressed out is from doing some of the opportunities.  I wonder if a Neurotic's tranquil mood would last through those events?

[Leto85]

I've never had a workaholic come home stressed from work.  But all my sims know the rule:  get your fun need up before work.  Where my sims do get stressed out is from doing some of the opportunities.  I wonder if a Neurotic's tranquil mood would last through those events?

Does the Neurotic trait make things even worse than?

[samoht04]

The neuortic trait gives a 'Tranquil' moodlet which is a + something from  a quick freak out I think it lasts for 8 hours but I don't know if stress cancels it out.

[Leto85]

Yes, I'm aware of that it does tranquil. But I've never seen the benefit of it. I always thought that if you could see traits as being bad and being good, than neurotic should have been neutral.

Correct me guys!

[banded]

I genuinely have never chosen my sims traits based on their choice of career. I don't know if anyone agrees but in my opinion it already takes no time at all to reach level 10 in a career without the overkill of job performance increasing traits. To be honest I think traits can be put to much better use. Of course I agree with metros 1st post on this topic that over emotional is the best. because it is. I just think that taking the athletic trait just to aid in reaching lvl 10 criminal career for instance is pointless as athletic is limited in its benefits.

[Yarakisagoa]

Well, maybe for you, athletic is worthless, but for me, it worth for pick up. I like to watch my sim doing his work out all day long, fishing after faltigue, and gardening before work out the next day . We all want our sim is a super-sim, dont we? But only 5 traits to pick up. So i just picking up what i like, and eñjoy my sim life .

[Hosfac]

The neuortic trait gives a 'Tranquil' moodlet which is a + something from  a quick freak out I think it lasts for 8 hours but I don't know if stress cancels it out.

While I've had no opportunity to test it yet, many people claim that a quick freak out will cancel all stress moodlets in lieu of the tranquil moodlet.

[TheChronicR]

Not only it cancels all stress moodlets, but also freezes the fun bar for the next 8 hours. Very useful for writers.

[Hosfac]

Since the fun bar is frozen, it would cancel any stress related moodlets for as long as the tranquil moodlet persisted.  Thanks for confirming it, TheChronicR. 

[thesweetestpea]

I combined Insane and Neurotic when I challenged myself to get the Surrounded with Family LTW. I can safely say that neurotic is a great trait to have. It kept my sim's mood up with just a quick freak-out and made taking care of the kids a lot easier because she didn't get so grouchy after work. She also accumulated LTHP a lot faster than her partner from all the little wishes.

[MoMoll]

Wouldn't Charisma be better for Law Enforcement than genius, since they have to interview people at some point.

Your missing the Film Career: Charisma and I'd think Overly Emotional

[MissPlumbBob]

I didn't realize how powerful the Neurotic trait was until I read this thread. Thanks for all the tips!

[kiko94]

I also think we could help you update the thread with the Professions that came with Ambitions?

[lilemz]

Really nice guide, I have a few thoughts for some of the ambitions careers

 For the Film Career i'd say star quality, friendly and charismatic are good traits to have :3

Investigator, genius

daycare nurturing and friendly

firefighter athletic and brave

stylist friendly and schmoozer as client relationships are imperative- same with architect i'd say

[Ricalynn]

I wouldn't give an investigator genius as much as I would give him perceptive which is very similar to genius with a twist.  It's basically tailor-made to be given to investigators.

For a Firefighter - I'd also give them handy because you need handiness as part of the career metrics.

[lilemz]

Ohh yes totally! Good idea

[simmergeek]

Can you please update with the careers with ambitions & island paradise??

[Zaki]

I think one of the best for Medical is Workaholic, because you have to work long hours and you get called in at three in the morning, so it's important that you like work.