Does changing careers make you the special abilities gained?

[Nerva]

If I become a Superstar Athlete  I can sign autographs, but do I keep that perk if I switch to a new career?   Same goes for whether you still get saluted after leaving the military.

[Sindocat]

To the best of my knowledge, no. Your Sim is only treated as the career they currently have. My ex-Rank 10 Musicians (Rock Star / Hit Movie Composer) can no longer hold autograph sessions since I changed careers.

The material perks (cars etc.) you can unlock, you do keep however.

[Brooke.]

If you have Late Night and your Sim has enough celebrity points you can actually sign autographs no matter what your career is.

[Nerva]

What about saluting?   I seem to remember reading that your kids will salute and be saluted as well -- implying it is a hidden trait, and from what I've read in this thread, you keep the hidden traits you gain.

It sounds like abilities that are functions of the job are lost when changing careers -- so signing autographs is a job function for athletes and rock stars, while raiding criminal hideouts is a function of law enforcement, and so on.   But as it turns out, you can separately sign autographs simply because of your star level.

[Trip]

You keep hidden traits, but you lose abilities that are not tied to hidden traits.

For example, I had a sim in the military who could still salute after he retired, and his "Can Salute" hidden trait was passed down for a few generations. But my Emperor of Evil lost his red glow gained from the career (not a hidden trait) after he retired.

[furry98]

I had a sim reach the top of the science career and get the "Perform Experiment" perk. He kept that after he quit and became a self-employed sculptor. I haven't had him take on another rabbit hole job so I can't really say about those.

[Cheezey]

Your sim will keep any skills or objects gained while employed in a career, such as the police car if your sim was a high enough level of law enforcement, or any of the rewards in Ambitions careers like the fire engine, stylist mirror, medical skeleton, or even the little ghost spirit detector. However, you will lose the ability to use them in a career-like way. Your retired or career-switched ghost hunter sim, even though they still have the little meter, can only switch it on to see the spirits, but they can no longer capture them. Your former doctor won't be able to pass out experimental medicine.

Very early on (we're talking before World Adventures came out) this wasn't true, and with aging off or slow, you could make a sim that had the special interactions of all the base game careers by having him or her max it and then switch to another, but that was taken out with a patch, sadly.