In the Sims franchise so far, once a sim reaches the top of their career, there's nothing else for them to do. They just keep going to work, rake in the bucks, and otherwise phone it in. But in real life, it's the opposite. The higher up in a career we go, the more exciting opportunities we get. And it's hard to stay on top in the real world, especially when you stop trying to move ahead.I'm'd love to see that reflected in the Sims. It'd be cool if we had playable challenges and special events that are unlocked only when we reach the top (or next to the top)of a career.

-Painter sims could get the option to throw a retrospective. (Having it at the museum/gallery, making use of that often pointless venue)
-Actor Sims could get invited to premieres or photo shoots. (At the theater, assuming these will no longer be rabbitholes, and at private residences with beautiful vistas)
-Stylist Sims get to prep and throw a fashion show. (Theater or gallery)
-Writer sims can attend book signings at the local bookstore.
-Top business Sims get to take out loans to invest in bigger business opportunities.
-Doctors can throw charity galas and save the lives of sims having a heart attack.
-Scientists get the chance to carry out high level experiments using rare resources.
-Mayors get to throw fundraising dinners and hold campaign rallies or give speeches that will affect their career performance. If they get "voted out of office", they can switch careers - to business for example.

These would be optional of course, and break up the monotony of sim life at the top. I dislike the either or nature of sim careers atm. I don't want to babysit my sims at work, but I also don't want to play a never ending career rat race. I think this would be the prefect balance.

Love it!

Would be nice if there could be only one mayor, and one of other positions within the town. Could be elections going on even, allowing your own sims to vote and the candidates campaigning on TV and in the park.

Celebrity sims should have fans. By 'celebrity' I don't mean the TS3 celebrity thing, but jobs where the latter job titles are things like Rock God, Celebrity Chef, Prestidigitator and Icon. They can send weird letters and bizarre gifts.

Yeah, the careers should be smarter. Only one Mayor. And that person should be recognized by everyone, elections sounds also fun.

Agreed - an elections mod would has been my wish for a TS2 game for a while. Some nice ideas here.

I like!

Hopefully skills for jobs will make more sense this time as well. Its rediculous that scientists require the fishing skill.

Would also be nice if jobs where more dynamic, flexible. Not all of them should have 10 levels in them. Should have as many levels as makes sense, and there could be more branches, more than just two. Again, where it makes sense.
Some sims should also be content with lower jobs, not wishing to reach the top. They might be very happy as a street cop and may not want to advance to a desk job. I'd bet not every sim joining the army would want to be an astronaut either.
Hence promotions should be optional.

i would like to see franchises for example the supermarket, spar and dinners - they tend to only go up to level 5 with jobs. Maybe you could be able to make level 6+ and you change your job location to the office. also i would like to see competitiveness from different companies - e.g if you work in a restaurant your boss could tell you to put soap in the secret recipe soup of your enemy cafe and your get a promotion - pranks could be a good idea like Plankton and Mr Krabs.

With the business career i always felt that it was too ambiguous - there should be different companies you can get hired for and your more likely to be accepted in the job depending on your skill in the interview and also how well the business is doing. for example an organic food company might want the traits green fingered and cares for environment and you might need to read a book or take a class on environmentalism to differently get the job.

The political career should be taken a little more seriously.... I mean in a fun way, not in a boring "Oh GAWD I HATE POLITICS" kind of way.

I think sims (in higher rank) political status, should upgraded to better homes, better cars, and protection. I mean c'mon, there are perks to being in charge in the political world. You think Obama is just living on your block, taking a morning jog and doing laundry with the locals?

Family members could have titles such as "mayors son" or "mayors daughter" or "mayors wife".

Sims in the town could have memories like "saw the mayor" "mayor shook my hand" "woo-hood with the mayor" "fought the mayor".

Sounds good to me!

Careers need a complete overhaul in my opinion. In reality, most people have to work to put food on the table and keep the lights on! It's a big part of life and considering the nature of The Sims I think they could do with putting a bit more effort into careers/jobs to make it a bit more interesting and rewarding to play. Otherwise why bother. I've never ended up playing the vast majority of careers in the game because they seem so pointless and unrewarding - most of them are only handy if you want to get rid of a sim for a few hours each day into a rabbithole.

I like most of what has been suggested here, especially the option of not advancing.

Overall, I liked the mix Ambitions did with optionally letting the sims out of the rabbithole to do some "real" work (medical and movie career, I think).
This should be an option with all of them. Lawyers would have court dates, doctors do their volunteer or vaccination work, scientists have to.. actually I can't think of anything right now. I think that would overall be a good compromise between some realism and the urgent need to get them out of your hair for a while.

And yes, no more fishing and gardening for scientists. Only for, let's say biologists. An astrophysicist just needs logic and stargazing.

I agree with advancement being optional. If I make a Sim join the Medical career path, and they become a Nurse, it would be nice if I could let them STAY a nurse. Or even something like, click on the hospital for job listings, and several "paths" come up. Doctor, Nurse, whatever. Nursing could do very well as a whole career path on it's own, since there are several levels of nursing, all with a bunch of letters you get to attach to your title. RN, Nurse Practitioner, etc. This would also help with the money situation. It is far too easy any more to rake in the cash. There is no challenge involved. Let's say there is a video game system that costs $400 dollars. If my sim makes $9000 dollars every week, that system is just something to make the "nicely decorated" moodlet pop up. But if my Sim only makes $400 dollars a week, that represents a more serious cash investment, so I would make sure it would be something my Sims wanted, and would probably use it more often (especially if it were one of the few "fun" items they had, since they couldn't afford everything else) and I would feel a bigger sense of accomplishment for saving up to buy it.

Would also be nice if sims wouldnt always need to start at the bottom of a career either. A sim with full logic applying for a job at the lab shouldnt start as a test subject. They'd be smart enough to show they can do more.

I also like the idea of competing businesses. Could be left up to the player to do much with that. Place just one restaurant and theres no competition, place a second one and suddenly there could be additional opportunities. Would be nice if a characcteristic could be set for a company.

For the business career I'd really want to see the big heartless corporation that gives better payment against the smaller business that pays less but is much more pleasant.
Working for the corporation could be more stressfull and might make a sim quite some enemies, especially if they are on the top. This corporation pollutes the enviroment, crushes its competition without mercy and tries to buy anything they want to have.
Working for the small business could be more pleasant for sims since its a friendlier enviroment. they might make some friends and other sims wont hate them for working there.

Yes, sims their opinion of others their job should be present. Doesnt need to be too overbearing. Sims might feel attracted to uniforms, to firemen, to doctors, rockers, people with power, etc. Could be tied in with traits.
Same for disdain for various jobs. Sims might dislike people who sold out to a corporation, they might disprove of sims in the army, dislike rockstars, and snobs might look down on sims with poorly paid jobs.

For those who have social and psychological problems it whould be nice in Sims 4 have the psychologist profession and act on his profession not in a rabit hole but in his own office (on his own house or renting one space for that). The same with doctors. Like in real life.
Plumbers and electricians could be nice too as a profession, being able to visit and fix things in all kind of lots