To quit a job in The Sims 3, click your Sim’s phone (in their inventory) or a computer and choose the quit job option, then confirm; alternatively, simply join a different career, and the game asks whether your Sim wants to leave the current one first. Elders get a better option, retirement, which keeps paying a pension. This guide covers regular careers, the active professions from Ambitions, self-employment, retiring, rejoining, and the fixes when the quit option is missing.
Quitting a Regular Career
Regular careers are the base game “rabbit hole” jobs (Business, Culinary, Law Enforcement, Medical, Music, Political, Science and the rest), where your Sim disappears into a building for the shift. To leave one:
- Click the phone in your Sim’s inventory, or click a computer they can use.
- Pick the quit job interaction from the menu. Player guides and forum answers place it on both the phone and the computer.
- Confirm the dialog. Your Sim is unemployed immediately.
The second route is often quicker: have your Sim join the new career you want (from the newspaper, the computer’s job listings, or by clicking the new workplace building). If they already have a job, a confirmation appears asking whether to quit the old one and take the new one. Players on a long-running Sims modding forum describe exactly that dialog appearing when switching into the Stylist profession, and it works the same for regular careers.
Quitting an Ambitions Profession
The Sims 3 Ambitions added professions, the jobs where you control your Sim at work: Firefighter, Ghost Hunter, Investigator, Stylist and Architectural Designer. EA’s own pack description sums it up as the first time “you control your Sim’s actions and interactions while they’re on the job.” Later packs added more active jobs, such as the Lifeguard profession from Island Paradise.
Professions are quit the same way as regular careers: the phone or computer quit option, or by joining something else and accepting the prompt to leave. Per the community wiki, the buildings that hire for each profession are the fire station (Firefighter), the salon (Stylist), City Hall (Architectural Designer, and Lifeguard in Island Paradise), the science lab (Ghost Hunter) and the police station (Investigator). If the phone option is not showing, click that building: the join option lives there, and players report the quit option does as well.
The wiki also says professions pay a weekly stipend on Sunday plus per-task bonuses, so quitting just before Sunday forfeits that week’s stipend.
Self-Employment and Skill Careers
Ambitions also lets Sims register as self-employed in a skill (painting, writing, sculpting, inventing, tattooing, gardening and so on). Registering only adds tracking and bonuses; your Sim can keep earning from the skill without it. If you register and later want out, the same quit option on the phone or computer ends it, and nothing is lost from the underlying skill. Joining a regular career also replaces it through the same confirmation prompt.
Retiring Instead of Quitting (Elders Only)
If your Sim is an elder, do not quit: retire. Retiring ends the job but keeps money coming in as a pension, while quitting pays nothing.
- Elders with a job get a Retire option in place of, or alongside, quitting. Use it from the phone or computer.
- Per the community wiki, the pension depends on the career and the level your Sim held when they retired, and for Ambitions professions it depends on average income from the job.
- The wiki also notes an elder can take a new job after retiring, but that stops the pension and the new job cannot be retired from.
Nearby Sims even cheer the moment an elder retires.
Rejoining a Career You Quit
Quitting does not erase the career track, but do not expect to walk back in at the same level. Early player reports consistently say a Sim who rejoins an old career starts below where they left, and neither EA nor the community wiki gives a firm rule, so treat any level you keep as a bonus. If you are switching for good, our guides to the Film career and the Gardener career cover two popular destinations.
When the Quit Option Will Not Appear
A stuck job is almost always a stuck Sim. Players on a long-running Sims modding forum traced the bug mostly to townies that were moved into a playable household. In order:
- Reset the Sim. Open the cheat console with Ctrl + Shift + C (Cmd + Shift + C on Mac) and type
resetsim Firstname Lastname. Our Sims 3 reset guide explains the other reset options, and our Sims 3 cheats guide covers the console. - Join a different career. The join prompt can bring up the quit dialog even when the menu option is missing.
- Rule out mods. Script mods that change careers can hide or break the option. Test with the Mods folder moved out.
More career and life walkthroughs are on our Sims guides hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you quit a job in The Sims 3? Click your Sim’s phone or a computer and choose the quit job option, then confirm. Joining a different career also triggers a prompt to quit the current one.
How do you retire in The Sims 3? Only elders can retire. Use the Retire option from the phone or computer; your Sim leaves the job and receives a pension based on their career.
Do you lose your career level if you quit? Player reports say rejoining an old career usually puts your Sim back below the level they left, so assume some progress is lost.
How do you quit an Ambitions profession? The same way as a regular career: the phone or computer quit option, or join another job and accept the prompt. Players report the building that hired your Sim lists it too.
Why can’t my Sim quit their job? Usually the Sim is stuck. Reset them with the resetsim cheat, try joining another career to force the quit prompt, and remove career mods if the problem persists.