Key to the Town

[Schipperke]

I don't play doctors very often and recently decided it was time to try the medical career.  This is the first time I've done it since getting Ambitions.  The Prima guide says doctors get the key to the town when they reach level 10, but this didn't happen for my doctor.  I decided to try another profession - ghost hunter - to see if he would get the key at level 10, but it didn't happen there either.  I'm wondering what experience other people have had with this - is the key a random thing?  The guide implies that getting the key is automatic at level 10, so I'm wondering if the guide is wrong or if I just had a couple of glitched games.  My ghost hunter did get other rewards; it was just the key that eluded him.

[Juxtaposition]

I have played a lvl 10 ghost hunter, doctor, and firefighter now, and I think I got one key, as a ghost hunter, one of the 3 times I got that career to lvl 10.  So if it's a glitch that makes it random for you, I've got it too.

[Metropolis Man]

It very well may be a random thing as opposed to a guaranteed thing, Schip. But, is there a chance you also missed the pop-up announcing the ceremony? If you had another pop-up already on the screen, then the Key to the City ceremony announcement would have only been in the background. Though I would think you would have also been tipped off by the blue star icon on the screen.

[kattiq]

My sim just reached level 10 in her doctor career and did not receive a ceremony or a key.

[TheChronicR]

When my Sim reached level 10 in the Personal Investigator profession, she received the key, but only after a certain amount of time. I think you receive the pop-up after 5 days. It may also be 5 jobs. I don't know for sure, but that's not immediate.

[Saltypaws]

Same for me, it didn't happen for almost a sim week after level 10.  I have gotten one for firefighter, ghostbuster, Fashion and PI.  Not sure how long you have waited, but that might be the key.  I think I did a few more jobs after reaching that level, but this has been quite a while back since I played.  So many other minor bugs have hit since that time, so not quite sure now what triggers the key to the city.

[Hosfac]

Like the others said, it doesn't appear to be immediate or guaranteed.  I had a private investigator who got it the day after getting promoted to level 10, and a firefighter who got it about a week and a half after getting to level 10.  I also have a vampire doctor who's been at the top of her career for about 4 weeks who still hasn't got the key to the city.

[TheChronicR]

Like the others said, it doesn't appear to be immediate or guaranteed.  I had a private investigator who got it the day after getting promoted to level 10, and a firefighter who got it about a week and a half after getting to level 10.  I also have a vampire doctor who's been at the top of her career for about 4 weeks who still hasn't got the key to the city.

Lol maybe the game doesn't like vampire doctors??  Just imagine, a doctor is sucking your blood aka 'plasma'. 
Anyway, the time it takes to receive is indeed ridiculous. I'll have to google this one to find some reliable help.

[Leto85]

You have to fullfill a few things after you become level 10 in one of the Ambitions careers. Scroll down here on this linky linky to the bottom until you see The Sims 3 to see what you need to do to get the career rewards in Ambitions.

[Schipperke]

Leto, I checked out the link.  As you say, it has a list of various career rewards but unless I'm missing something, I didn't find the key to the town in the list.  It's really interesting hearing about other peoples' experience with this.  It makes me wonder if I just didn't wait long enough to get the reward, although I really don't understand why the key would turn up in a few days in some games and not in others. 

Metro, you're right that in a lot of games I just ignore the rewards and might miss them.  But with the two examples I gave, I was specifically looking for these rewards so I really don't think that's the problem here. 

[Hosfac]

You have to fullfill a few things after you become level 10 in one of the Ambitions careers. Scroll down here on this linky linky to the bottom until you see The Sims 3 to see what you need to do to get the career rewards in Ambitions.

The key is a service reward, not a career reward. 

And on this line of thinking, the sim might need to continue to perform services to the community even after reaching level 10 to get the reward.  There could, in theory, be a threshold of service that needs to be exceeded in order to qualify.  This could explain why some careers get the reward sooner than others.  Firefighters and private investigators perform community service as a part of their daily job responsibilities.

This would seem to make sense, as my doctor has long since stopped doing all those little opportunities that pop up since she hit level 10.  And before that, she skipped the ones that would put her outdoors for extended periods of time as a rule (i.e. the free clinic).  That could explain why she hasn't received it. 

[Schipperke]

The key and other items are called Career Rewards in the Prima guide.  In this Wiki reference http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Service_awards, the term Service awards is used.  Regardless of terminology, both references state that the requirement for getting the key is to reach level 10 of the profession.  Other awards have specific requirements like completing X innoculation jobs to get the medical trophy of honour, but reaching level 10 is - according to these references - the only requirement for the key.

[Leto85]

The key is a service reward, not a career reward.  

Yes, I know. But that will be named also, the career rewards are underneath that, but because those have pictures it would probably have dragged your attention. But I was reffering to the service rewards.

Edit: O wait, after rereading my thing I understand where the confusion came from now. Well, the point is that my sims did got the key reward several times in different careers. The only thing I can think of he or she has did was something great, like rescuing a lot of people in the fire department career or giving a lot of people medicins in the medical career.
But know that you have to do that within one career level. Once you get a promotion before rescuing the requid amount of persons (and sorry but I don't remember how much those are) it counts back from zero.

[Hosfac]

The key and other items are called Career Rewards in the Prima guide.

But the game itself calls them service awards.

I'm not knocking Prima Guides or anything, but they've been known to be inaccurate on occasion.  Since they're written and printed up well before the game's release, and relies exclusively on information given by the game designers, it's not unheard of for the game to undergo last minute changes, and the new information never makes it into the guide. 

[Schipperke]

I'm not knocking Prima Guides or anything, but they've been known to be inaccurate on occasion.  Since they're written and printed up well before the game's release, and relies exclusively on information given by the game designers, it's not unheard of for the game to undergo last minute changes, and the new information never makes it into the guide. 

I know.  That's why I wanted to hear what other peoples' experience has been with the keys.  As I said, both the Prima and Wiki guides imply that sims get the key when they reach level 10 - no other requirements are listed.  Since my sims didn't, I wasn't sure if my games were glitched or if the guides were wrong.