I'm looking for teen jobs/careers that make a bit more sense than the first three levels of the usual careers. For example, perhaps J.R.O.T.C for Military teens? Suggestions more than welcome.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "toned down." And in fact perhaps this option will not be to your liking because it can be more demanding hourswise, which was the author's intent...

But I'll mention it anyway, because I've been thinking it deserves more recognition. Simsfreq provided default-replacement versions of all the Maxis teen/elder careers, and I have them all in my game. (No problems with them whatsoever.)

The things that are changed are only hours and wages, though, not actual tracks or descriptions. The author was pretty thorough in describing the sorts of changes that were made (even providing a spreadsheet midpost with a breakdown of all the new specs for the teen/elder tracks), so I won't go into detail about that. I will say that I downloaded them for the option of having a bigger range of pay for teen/elder careers so that some teens/elders could actually be barely supporting a household on their own, especially if they are willing to skip school (or use the custom schools that simsfreq also included on that page, or use Simlogical's custom Flexi School----that last is what I do for those teen jobs that now interfere with school.) To me, the fact that there is also a bigger range of hours (some jobs are now only weekends or start and end before school, for example). just adds a little more fun.

I also loved that this made it possible in one swoop to get elders jobs that pay a bit better. I also use MATY's noagediscrimination (go here and click on your latest EP, and then find it within his big list) for that specific problem (lets you get elders regular adult jobs if they use the computer, though even with the hack they can still be stuck with the regular elder tracks only if you restrict them to using the newspaper to search), but in combination with simsfreq's default overwrites, now my elders also have lots and lots of choices, to match their ambition level and personality.

(There's also a mod for cosleeping with babies on that same thread of simsfreq's that seems to have gotten much more attention; it looks like a cool idea, but I've not tried it.)

If what you wanted was just the same sort of timeslot but different things to do altogether, there's also stuff on here like lientebollemeis' after-school activities . I have a few of those in as well; I like that they can *cost* money. I've also found cheerleading (may need to search for "cheer") and student government teen careers on here that follow similar principles. Of course, the drawback is that those will also show up as careers for elders in a normal elder job search.

@natboopsie
I'm sorry for sounding cryptic, LOL. I basically mean that many of the teen careers of the Maxis jobs are a bit unrealistic for teens to undertake. Being a substitute teacher, a crime scene investigator, legal secretary or foreman as a teen leaves me looking a bit... I want my teens to have a start in those careers as something a bit less... intense? grown up?

It's not the pay or the hours that bother me. No, it's the job titles themselves. I actually have my pay cut in half because I like my Sims to EARN IT. LOL. If they need more money, they can always go to a community lot and work for a bit to make it up! I actually have some of those teen jobs you mentioned, specifically the ones by tcbandie10 and I LOVE that they can cost money. I have the one for Driver's Ed too, and it is definitely a money sponge.

I have already started to remedy the situation by writing up some teen careers for Adventurer and Medical (complete with chance cards). Now just to either find (or pay) someone to help me put it all together or conquer the beast and do it myself. We shall see!!! I really, really appreciate the post and I know it will be useful to others who may not have known about the wonderful things you mentioned. THANK YOU.

Ah, I see, Goldenbtrfly! Thank you for explaining.

I agree with having sims "earn it." I have tight skill limits based on the achievement-level concept (often part of an integrated-hood playstyle and one that I picked up from folks including some on MTS2, like Katya Stevens and lauratje86) as well as no20K handouts by MATY, no inheritances ever (also over at MATY by Jordan M.G., who goes by Singularity; it is Singularity's fourth or fifth post down on the page), and Bigger Bills by Cyjon (which I leave on the default level of 4). With all that, I was happy to let teen- or elder-headed households earn a tiny bit more, because I suppose in those cases, I hated to see them so brutally impoverished and wanted them to just be...well, just-plain impoverished. We all have different personal limits, lol.
Very Important Revision: although the link for the thread about Singularity's no-inheritance mod is correct, if one has Seasons, he also provided a further update to that mod, further down in the thread (post 22). I use that one now; the original no-inheritance mod he created does cause some problems when pets die, wherein the Grim Reaper may do a lot of looping...which is sort of not a very humane death for the pet or any witnesses on the lot.

You know, if you're willing to write your career up in a detailed way (and it sounds like you are), I have a lead for you. MTS2 member lientebollemeis takes requests for custom careers, including teen and elder careers, and does that full-time, according to them. In their profile here, they have a link to the custom-career request page on their personal site. Perhaps you can get your career wants met that way! From my reading, it sounds like lientebollemeis creates careers for the fun of it and doesn't ask a fee---just has to like your idea.

No problem, natboopsie! I only have my career pay cut in half and the no20khandouts. I don't mind inheritances too much, and I find that with pay halfed, bills are often just fine, LOL! It's fun to find and use all the creative ways to earn money in the game.

I will most definitely be contacting Lientebollemeis very soon. The nice thing about teen careers is that it is only 3 levels, and therefore SUPER easy to write!

Thank you so much for your help/advice.

Ooh thanks for the plug, natboopsie

Teen careers are very very easy to make, can definitely confirm. I can't remember exactly how I did them now but there is a wizard in SimPE which will take you through making any normal career, which works for teen ones. There are a couple of tutorials floating around for this. For default replacements, you need to extract the official ones and not change the GUID. Then I think I fiddled with settings to make the university careers upgrade properly. I don't remember how to do that offhand, but if you're just changing careers which already exist, then no need.

I also feel like the base game teen careers were much more well thought through. You had things like the Paintball attendant for Military, waterperson for Athletic etc. But for the Freetime careers most of them are just the first three levels of the adult one, which as you said, isn't very realistic at all! It might be something I'd look into doing at some point, but it's fairly unlikely. I just tend to mentally ascribe age limits to the jobs which are more demanding.

Quite welcome, simsfreq! You definitely deserve it.

You're the only one I know of who has done a complete default replacement of the teen/elder careers, and I really liked the way you designed them to force teens to choose between normal school and work on certain days. Now that's realistic, especially considering there are still several tracks that don't conflict with school. And adding more realism and (forcing) opportunities for my sims to make choices is something I just can't get enough of.

@simsfreq
Know what I find hardest about careers?! The danged icon you need for it. Grrr.

I did end up with three custom (not default replacements) teen careers that I feel are "Adventure-y" (LOL). Yeah, three. I have... issues. I do agree with you on the basegame careers, they were MUCH better, but I will probably mess with the ones I feel don't represent what teens would do, or if they have an alternative in existence somewhere already (for example, Student Senate for my future Politicians).

I also checked out your Tumblr. I literally sat up for hours last night revising my college rules after reading yours. Good timing too, because:

1. I just started my new rotation.
2. I just sent my first teen to college, so the rest will have FULL teen benefits or limitations.

So thank you for not only an interesting Tumblr post, but for also responding.

Haha, cool! I'm glad you liked it I hardly ever update and usually assume nobody reads it, so perhaps I should actually think of some more things to put up there. I certainly find that I repeat myself in describing certain aspects of play style on here.

I suppose the icons might be tricky. I didn't actually have to create any, because I only used careers which were already in game! I think that if I was going to create some, I'd look for some kind of symbol relating to that career in the style of webdings, wingdings, that kind of thing or monochrome clip art. And then I'd just put it into the correct colours. It bugs me when custom careers use normal coloured icons rather than sticking to the game style.