How to Get a Job in Big Ambitions

A job is how the game expects you to start. You begin with an empty bank account, and Uncle Fred’s tutorial includes a “Get a job” objective for exactly that reason. The job is not the goal. It is the cash for your first lease, stock and fixtures, and it is worth leaving as soon as a business covers those.

Where the jobs are

Every job in the game shows up under that one heading, so the fastest way to find work is to turn all three on and pick the nearest pin.

The three jobs

Customer service at El Gato. El Gato Foods is the supermarket in Hell’s Kitchen, on 3rd Street, and the job is working its checkout. It is the job the game has had since the beginning. Two things to know: you can be fired, and since Build 3672 a firing from El Gato locks you out for 30 days.

Delivery driver. Added in Early Access 0.9. Vans with deliveries waiting are parked around the city, and the Delivery Driver filter shows where. Take one and a timer starts: you have three drops to make before it runs out. You get paid when you return the van, plus tips from customers, and faster runs earn bigger tips. Damage comes out of your pay, so drive the van like it is yours. Build 3672 made sure these van jobs always show on the map.

Food delivery. New in 1.0. Speedy Bites delivers food to homes and businesses, and Hovgaard’s own pitch for it was that you can run those deliveries yourself when you need quick cash.

Which one to take

A van run is self-contained: three drops on a timer, paid the moment you hand the van back. That makes it the easy one to slot in between other errands, and driving well visibly pays: tips for speed, deductions for damage. The El Gato checkout is the job the game started with and the plainer way to spend a day earning, with the one rule above about getting fired.

When to quit

Quit when the money you need for a first business is in the bank. For a small shop that is less than you might think: the best starting business page ranks every retail business by what it costs to open, and at the community’s recorded prices the cheapest door is around $2,000 before rent and stock. Borrowing your way past the job is harder than it used to be: since 1.0, loans need more income to qualify and carry higher minimum daily payments.

Once the business runs, the hiring goes the other way. The employees page covers who to hire from which agency, and what an HR manager is for.

Related

• Getting started — the first hour, in the order the game expects
• Best starting business — what the job money should go into
• Employees and demands — once you are the one hiring