Architectural Designer - Your architect applies for this job at city hall. During the working day, different jobs turn up requiring your architect to visit clients and carry out anything ranging from minor redecorations to adding on new rooms. During this house makeover phase, it brings up a version of the buy and build modes for the house you are working on and also displays a list of what the client wants doing and the budget to work within. A reward is given for each makeover completed with a bonus depending upon how much the client likes the work. It can be difficult when you get repeat clients and they have a small sized lot. A good makeover gives an improved relationship with the client.

The key skill for this profession is painting, which is the closest creative-type skill TS3 has at this time. However, there is a new drafting table to learn the skill on. This can also be used for Stylists.

Doctor - This is a reworking of the existing career of medicine. This career already involved your medically-minded sim being called back to the hospital for emergencies. Now, it has had a major shaking up. Firstly, your sims can be called on to deal with an emergency even when they are out during their spare time. Secondly, during work hours, they can be called on to run a vaccination clinic, a medical outreach seminar, test questionable drugs or look into epidemics. What experience they may lose for not being at the hospital, they gain more from practising medicine "in the field". In this case, this paramedic is running a vaccination clinic in the park.

I was quite impressed with how an existing career was enhanced and would have liked to see changes like these for the other base careers. This is the only one that stays with the career-based method of advancement.

Firefighter - Working from the fire station, I find this to be the most fully fleshed out of the new careers. Between calls, your sim firefighter can perform maintenance checks on the fire engine or even the alarm bell itself. The station has a lot of other facilities to help them hone their skills or build relationships with the other firefighters. In fact, a fire fighter could even live at the station between shifts. The reward from putting fires out effectively is dependant upon the response time. At higher levels, sims can even improve their personal extinguisher that reduces the time taken to put out a fire. As your firefighter gains experience, they are expected to cope with larger emergencies. Despite my firefighting sim now being the Fire Chief of Twinbrook, I am yet to deal with fires being caused by meteor storms or earthquakes.

Key skills are being handy and athletic.

Ghost Hunter - Yes, that's who you're gonna call when there is something strange in the sim-neighborhood. Unfortunately, there is no disused fire house to work from or ectomobile to drive to the jobs in. Nevertheless, they are issued with a banshee banisher, which appears to be a cross between a proton pack and a vacuum cleaner. Paranormal entities are either banished by it or captured. At the lower levels, they are all captured, remain in captivity in the sim's inventory and can be traded in for extra simoleons at the science facility. As your ghost hunter gains experience, the simple spirits are joined by poltergeists, ghostly presences and angry ghost invasions.

Key skill is logic, although charisma is useful at higher levels if your ghost hunters want to politely persuade the ghosts to leave.

Inventor - This is the first of the self-employed careers on this list and is based around the new skill of inventing and how much those inventions can be sold for. The skill can be improved by buying books on the subject or working on the new Scraptronic Workbench (§1,250). Each bench comes with its own scrap supply but that gets used up quickly. Sims will have to buy more scrap or scour through the piles at the junk yard. As the "simventor" gets better, he can create widgets, crafted toys and then proper inventions, which are worth more money respectively. At higher levels, they can detonate household items and turn them into scrap. Just ask permission from your neighbour if you are planning to turn his sports car into junk.

Key skill is inventing, which can be learned from books or from using the bench.

Investigator - Your investigator applies for this job at the police station, where they can also perform low level police work for some extra funds during their work hours. However, the majority of the work is done out in the field following clues, looking through rubbish bins, discreetly conducting stake outs and going from one link to another in order to crack the case. If you want to get plenty of lifetime reward points, it is probably not a good idea to have an investigator who hates the outdoors. I have found the odd investigation to turn up more than once, however.

Key skill is logic. I would recommend charisma if you want to be a "good cop" and get a good rapport with clients and suspects. If you would rather be "bad cop" and rough up suspects and break into houses, I recommend the athletic skill.

Sculptor - This is the second self-employed career on this list and is based around the new skill of sculpting and how much these sculptures can be sold for. This skill can also be improved through bookwork but mainly from sculpting on the new Pedestrian Sculpting Station (§1,100). As a sim gets better, they can sculpt in different mediums including ice sculptures and topiaries. If they are scultping in metal, they also need scrap to work from which will entail buying some or a visit to the junkyard.

Key skill is sculpting, which is learnt from ... scultping

Stylist - At the low levels of this profession, the stylist works from the salon in town where the clients come to get their makeovers at the Fuss no Muss Styling Station (§1,500). As your stylist reaches higher levels, they visit the different clients at their homes and conduct the makeovers there without any specialist equipment. During the makeover phase, it goes into a version of the create-a-sim mode and displays a list of what the client wants doing. This can range from a new hairstyle to a completely new wardrobe. The more the client likes the job, the higher the reward.

Key skill is painting. This can be improved with the easel or the drafting table.

I had been of the impression that the Tattoo Artist would have been a new playable profession in itself. Instead, he is a NPC who is based in the salon. For a price, he can add tattoos to sims or completely remove them. During character creation, sims of young adult, adult or elder can be given tattoos anyway. I would have liked the new create a pattern tool to be able to include tattoos but this does not yet appear to be the case.