5 years ago

Teaching Career...... majorly dissappointed.

The teaching career was one of the main reasons I waited for the university pack to come out, while hoping it would be added.... and finally... there it was... ready for my sim to dive into. Now I admit. A bit of my dissapointment is self inflicted. Because of the GTW pack I wasn't expecting all the rabbit holes. And to not even have a better grad ceremony option.... I mean come on right? But still, I was doing well to stay mostly positive.

I signed my sim up for the Psychology Degree (to become Professor), worked through the terms and earned an A+ (Honor) diploma. And then.... eagerly got my sim into the Professor career. What a useless journey.

For starters. Level 10 of the career only has my sim working 3 days a week. And.... I guess what they say IRL is true. Teachers don't get paid much.... because my sim, as a Professor, with an honor degree in psychology, only earns 2,238 per work day... for a total of 6,714 per week.

Now of course, I can tutor students online. And what a great plan that is. It takes 3 and 1/2 sim hours of online tutoring to earn.... wait for it..... 175 simoleans. Lets ignore the fact that I can catch 500 simoleans of fish in an hour, or find hundreds in trinkets on the Sulani beach, or.... simply create and sell 1 painting for well over 1000, again, in less time it takes to tutor students online for 175. (if it only took maybe an hour for the tutoring then I wouldn't really complain)

I figured maybe go to the Foxbury campus and tutor there instead of the online thing. NO. Don't do that. I started the tutoring at 10:47am. Finished at 3:54pm, and earned.... 90 simoleans. In short... stick to tutoring online if you're going to tutor at all.

The "write scholary paper", and "plan lecture" options (computer/career/educational career) do absolutely nothing except give you something like confidence boost for a few sim hours, and the teachers portfolio is only for grading student's homework which also does nothing except build the logic skill.

And... that's it. As a professor.... I get to work 3 days a week and earn a big paycheque of NOT even 7,000 simoleans for the whole week. If the professor was able to work 4 days a week, that would have been a bit better at 8,952. Then with some quick raises, and a few bonuses tossed in, it would have been easier to accept.

I'm hoping i'm missing something. That's its not as bad as i'm thinking. If I am, please point it out to me because currently..... I am absolutely majorly dissapointed at how empty, and a complete time waster the professor career is.

feedback

Cestmoiaussi
5 years ago
With the extra time, do what most professors do IRL? Write and sell textbooks on the side?
MysteriousLaura
5 years ago
To be honest, I would have prefered a career more like this. I graduated to become the lawyer branch, that is what excited me, but usually top careers only work a few days. Although with the lawyer it is Mon-Fri. Which I didn't mind because it had the work at home function. I figured that would be the best bet to use when the sims children were babies and toddlers, but even with that. My sim had to leave the lot to go to a lecture. Now, I know a few hours is technically better then all day. I just wanted to do more of a stay at home mom feel while retaining my career because the hubby hadn't graduated yet. I really ain't trying to complain I absolutely love the astectics.

Though now reading your post. I believe professor is the career for me!
Simburian
Seasoned Rookie
5 years ago
What Maxis need to do now is give some real rewards for those reaching the top. Three day weeks, long vacations, or even a complete golf course with 9 to 18 holes, (something like Sid Meier's Sim Golf) into the packs as a hidden lot to aim for. I loved that little Sim golf game. Even a superyacht in Sulani's sea would be nice. That's what top execs, tend to do and get as perks.

I think their imaginations have shrunk since Sims 1 and 2.
ck213
Seasoned Scout
5 years ago
"LDraconis;c-17320905" wrote:
With the extra time, do what most professors do IRL? Write and sell textbooks on the side?

Also, put a microphone in the student commons building to perform book readings.
It's more for immersion. The real money is in the books. My comedian sim wrote comedy books and had a group of alpha readers that she would perform readings for and would give copies of her latest book. I can see doing the same for a professor.
logionX
Seasoned Vanguard
5 years ago
Professors do a lot of things, they often do a combination of research and teaching. And research does often involve a lot of writing, it could also be projects they are doing together with other people, often other companies which they for example seek financing for. These projects could be huge and last multiple years. Famous professors often write their own course literature that they use for their own courses which they could be entirely responsible for, and they often have to update their courses over the years so that their courses will include new things.

If you would make this in the game, The "write scholarly paper", and "plan lecture" would not give you any money straight off, but would add to your performance and would give you money that you could use to do more research (not use for your own) , it would take months to complete and it could in the end increase your pay as you do more for your university.

So yeah, I don't know if Maxis maybe wanted you to write a lot of books to increase your pay.
The-Muzickmage
5 years ago
Its not that I was expecting a lot from this pack, lets face it.... its sims 4. Its a game of rabbit holes, retitled scripts, and load screens.

As I hinted towards in my initial post; if the professor careeer had the sim working 4 days per week instead of just 3, and the tutoring only took about maybe 1 sim hour to earn 175, instead of 3 and 1/2..... then it would have been a lot easier to accept.

I know it's been many years since i've been inside a university but back when I attended the professors were much more active. Maybe not all of them. I have no idea what "all" of them were doing from one day to the next, but I know my economics professor (for example) worked 5 days a week teaching multiple classes at 2 different universities. And I do recall him mentioning the odd lecture.

I don't mind adding the odd idea to enhance my professor experience, but, at the same time, If I wanted to be a writer, I would have had my sim enter that career instead.

Its the same with my sim chef. I had her write the odd cookbook. I didn't mind doing that because she worked 4 days a week. She earned fair enough pay that the cookbook was more of an added bonus, not a resolve to a bad experience. Plus she could sell food using the stalls. Then there's the idea of running around collecting new recipies. The chef career, even before the university pack, seemed active enough with enough relating ideas to make it worth achieving.

Writing books as a professor doesn't seem like an added bonus. It seems like a resolve to fix a poor career that offers very little to do or achieve. It takes so long to tutor students with very little reward or incentive to do so. I haven't figured out yet how to offer lectures. We weren't given a podium like the politicians so we can't stand in the park and lecture the passerbys.

I'm working on addon ideas. I'm not ready to give up yet. I'm searching the build/buy for items or ideas I could maybe integrate into a professor activity/career. But, i'm still completely disappointed with the fact that I have to put this much effort into making the professor career interesting. I definately wasn't expecting this career to be so empty feeling.
kurimisarang
5 years ago
I find the idea that a career is only the level 10 job, and everything before doesn't count, sorta weird tbh.

None of my sims actually have a level 10 job for that very reason: the work days are not enough for my taste, and playing these idle sims gets boring fast. Only really rich sims ever reach 8 or 9. I have to use MCCC to achieve that, but it's not a new problem.
Tomatplante
5 years ago
"LDraconis;c-17320905" wrote:
With the extra time, do what most professors do IRL? Write and sell textbooks on the side?

Or if you have Jungle Adventure, have archaeology be one of their fields of research. Then they can go on field trips to Selvadorada and sell authenticated artifacts, which is quite profitable.
The-Muzickmage
5 years ago
What I find dissappointing is the lack of options. We have a whole Uni world. 2 universities, lots of students, and a professor career. But yet, the lack of options for the professor to interact with the students is what's frustrating.

All we were given with this career is the option to tutor, either online, or at the uni world itself. The online tutoring takes 3 and 1/2 hours, and the campus tutoring takes about 5 hours, which of course is a rabbit hole. By the time you complete either idea you have to spend another 2-3 sim hours fixing the sim's need bars. All for 175 simoleans. I can earn that much simply by checking the pockets of my sim's laundry.

Yes, I agree. I can put my imagination to work and force integrate some ideas into the professor career..... such as writing books. Or, I could buy the podium from the politician career and pretend to be lecturing students about degree courses outside of the commons building. I can even invite a friend over to visit, and concentrate on the "teach" option in the conversation tabs while pretending to be given one-on-one tutoring classes. Absolutely, I can do these things. But why should I have to?

Even the Computer Science degree offers the opportunity to .... not only work, but also build and sell robots. You could have your own robotic store, or sell them at fairs. Or keep them for added interactions, and activities.

The private lawyer career, as mentioned in this thread, works 5 days a week, has to attend lectures. The Culinary, Fine Arts, and Drama degrees each opens up loads of gameplay options.

Having the professor career as empty as it is.... a career that came with a whole world built around teaching and learning.... a world of classes full of students.... its just mind boggling that I, as stated previously, have to spend so much effort in trying to make this career more interesting.
The-Muzickmage
5 years ago
"Tomatplante;c-17321506" wrote:
"LDraconis;c-17320905" wrote:
With the extra time, do what most professors do IRL? Write and sell textbooks on the side?

Or if you have Jungle Adventure, have archaeology be one of their fields of research. Then they can go on field trips to Selvadorada and sell authenticated artifacts, which is quite profitable.

The archaeology idea sounds interesting. Though my career title is "Professor". It doesn't say... Professor of "what". Maybe I could work in an "Archaeology Professor" idea.

Thanks for the post. I'm going to give that some thought.