Before we begin, I want to point something out: I know I will likely not have everything I'm asking for in a single mod. Heck, there probably isn't even a collection of mods out there right now that can provide me everything. But if there are mods out there that provide any of this, I'd be interested.

in vanilla Sims 3, getting a job is no effort whatsoever. You just log onto the computer, choose a job, and BOOM, you are now employed! No job interview; no boss checking your criminal record, no nothing.

With University Life, you can go to college and get a degree. The only benefits to getting a degree from Sims University is that I start at level 4 of the respective careers, rather than level 1. That is LAME! Considering that I can get a promotion within the first two days if I power work and suck up to the boss in rotation, the cost of getting that degree (unless I already get the maximum scholarship and 18 credits already paid for) is more than what I make in the improved salary!

I'd like to see an overhaul to the career system. I'd like to have to actually APPLY for jobs. Some jobs (such as culinary and/or the part time jobs) don't require any skills (the culinary career would require cooking skill to get promoted, but not hired, since waiting tables is a common first job), but they'd pay small wages without promotions that require high skills.

Alternatively, you could apply as an IT specialist. This would be based on your logic an handiness skills, while having the "computer whiz" trait would provide a flat buff to your hiring chances.

I'd also like to see jobs available from any company that might employ those kinds of people. While a restaurant might be the only ones employing cooks, nearly every company will need an accountant.

If you're in the law-enforcement career, you could apply at the city police department to be a cop, the nearby prison to be a prison guard, or any private company as a security guard. Apply at your favorite bar to be a bouncer!

You could even start your own security company or detective agency, if you were so inclined. A similar system to Island Paradise's "resorts" could be used. Purchase a secondary lot, build yourself an office, and file your new business at City Hall. Depending on your business/law enforcement career skills, your charisma skill, your celebrity status, and your existing relationship stati, your new customer base would either skyrocket or plummet.

Similar flexibility would be allowed for nearly ALL careers! You're a computer whiz? Build and sell computers in your garage!

Then we have Sims University. In my opinion, EA's got it backwards, how college is supposed to work. You're supposed to go to college to learn the skills, whereas in this game, having high skills in the first place gets you scholarships.

Instead, I'd like to see it where going to college and getting a degree will allow you to enter careers that you couldn't enter into at all without those degrees. The Medical career comes immediately to mind.

Yeah, I know! This is a big request! I don't expect everything I want to be provided in a single mod. But are there mods out there that provide at least some of the stuff I'm looking for?

Wow, that's a pretty far reaching request. Especially for a site like this one where mod requests, meaning requesting that mods which do not now exist actually be created, are not allowed. But in case any of this helps...

-- In addition to the career level boosts, Uni degrees also grant hefty starting salary increases that are not otherwise available.
-- Uni gives the opportunity for sims to advance skill levels, with time essentially frozen, that they may not otherwise have had time to work on. If my Fine Arts students are already Level 10 in Painting and Sculpting when they got there for example, I'll have them learn Cooking. In my experience, sims who level up on the skills associated with their major while there are in Uni have a much easier time advancing and maintaining their Uni academic performance.
-- Learning is supposed to be its own reward. (Sorry, I know that's not helpful, just felt like sticking it in there someplace...)

-- The NRaas Careers mod Academic add-on module expands the careers impacted by degrees to include all of EA's built in self-employed jobs and the professions. http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Careers...+Phase+Fourteen

-- One can arrange things using NRaas StoryProgression and castes so that certain careers, or certain levels of certain careers, require a specific Uni degree. So no more dropouts advancing from bedpan cleaners to performing neurosurgery just by playing chess a few times. The problem I have with playing this way is that inactives are also affected so the player has to decide if and how to get such degrees to inactives if they want any of them to advance in those slots. But there are several options that come to mind I just haven't fully explored -- Homeworld Uni or Honorary Degrees, for instance, or just using DebugEnabler to grant them their degrees outright and pretending they must have worked hard for them.

I also use Story Progression to keep a "criminal database" of sorts. Basically, if someone's been previously employed in the Criminal career (or the Delinquent job if you have NRaas' part-time jobs), they can't change to certain other jobs, like the Law Enforcement, Education, or Political careers.

Also, being very skilled with something *does* often grant you scholarships in real life- for instance, if you're an excellent athlete in high school, you can get an athletic scholarship.

I expressly stated that I would be content with only some of these things.

But as long as you're eligible for that job, you can just walk in and sign up for it without any applications or interviews, right?

Besides, if the law enforcement branch knows that you used to be in the criminal profession, why aren't they arresting you?

That's true, you did. My reaction was a casual, upon first glance/reading one, thinking about how involved such a mod would have to be. I wasn't really chastising you, sorry if it came across that way.