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BitLife Careers Guide: How to Become a College Dean, Marine Biologist, Magistrate, Computer Programmer, Cardinal or a Marriage Counselor

Now that it’s officially two years old and still going strong as one of the most popular games on the App Store and Google Play, BitLife keeps getting better and new careers are getting added from time to time. Candywriter has done a great job at keeping the game fresh with these new career options and the corresponding achievements which you can collect in the Careers section. Likewise, new college courses were introduced a few updates ago, and these could ensure you a smoother path toward the career you wish to collect — or simply have in mind for the characters you created.

Once again, we’ve got another BitLife career guide for you, and we’re going to tackle six mostly lucrative careers that you could collect, while also making a good enough living (in most cases) through your Smarts. The careers we’re referring to are College Dean, Marine Biologist, Magistrate, Computer Programmer, Cardinal, and Marriage Counselor, and we’re going to talk about the things you need to do to get the highest possible job in that career track, as well as detail any statistical requirements and any special steps you may need to take in order to expedite things and speed up your promotions.

As usual, we’re going to be using U.S. settings as our benchmark when it comes to the salary ranges for each position — these may be higher or lower depending on which country you’ve chosen for your character.

How To Become A College Dean In BitLife

Obviously, the main prerequisite for anyone who’s aiming for the College Dean job in BitLife is to have a lot of Smarts. You can actually start out as low as 60 to 70, but that would require you to study hard throughout your school years and join as many clubs as possible to raise this stat before you enter college. It’s preferable that you stay out of trouble in school, as getting sent to the principal’s or headmaster’s office could cause your grades to slip. But the important thing is to get a college degree in a course such as Education, then spend another two years in Graduate School to have the necessary scholastic background to become a College Dean.

That sounds simple enough, but you may need a fair bit of patience and work a seemingly unrelated job at first before getting there. Also, like in any career that requires a college degree, we would suggest joining a fraternity if you’re popular enough, as that gives you a good chance of avoiding the job interview minigame.

college dean job in bitlife

Before becoming a College Dean, you must first accumulate tenure as a Professor, but in order to get that job, you’ll need ten years of relevant work experience. When we say relevant, we’re talking about jobs such as School Teacher or Librarian, the latter of which seems to be a popular and easily available job that won’t take that much quitting and restarting of the game before it pops up. Working as a Librarian would earn you about $37,000 to $40,000 per year at first, and after five years or so, you can get promoted to Senior Librarian, which will earn you an annual salary of about $45,000 to $50,000 upon promotion. After working at least a decade as a Librarian, School Teacher, or anything else related, you can then apply to become a Professor.

Typically, the entry-level salary for first-time Professors is $55,000 to $60,000, and that’s not bad at all. But as we mentioned earlier, becoming College Dean requires patience, and to be specific about how much patience is needed, consider that you need to have accumulated 30 years’ worth of work experience in order to apply for College Dean. Assuming you worked exactly ten years as a Librarian or a teacher, that would mean 20 years as a Professor, though in our case, our test Bitizen spent a few years playing professional football before entering grad school and that apparently counted toward his 30 years.

Related: BitLife Careers Guide: How to Become a Brain Surgeon, Chief Justice, Engineer or an Executive Chef

College Deans tend to earn at least $150,000 a year, so this is indeed a good way to make an in-game living in case your stats preclude you from entering show business and/or professional sports but you’re smart enough to make big money in other, more conventional ways.

How To Become A Marine Biologist In BitLife

Among all the careers we’ve listed in this guide, this is the easiest one, when it comes to reaching the top position at the youngest possible age. Once again, high Smarts are preferred when creating a character for this career track, and you’ll want to keep your grades up for most, if not all of your time in school, because this would require attending graduate school. That means not getting into any fights, studying hard, and avoiding the temptation to skip school, even when invited by a classmate. (At this point, we should warn about what could happen if you get into trouble in school — no matter how good your grades are, you might miss out on a chance for a scholarship, hence the possibility of crippling student loan debts that could make it hard for you to get through graduate school if you, again, fail to get a scholarship!)

jr marine biologist job in bitlife

When choosing a college course, Biology is your best choice, and after that, you’ll need to spend two years in graduate school. After that, you can embark on this career, starting with a job as Junior Marine Biologist. Your entry-level salary here will be about $32,000 to $35,000 a year, which isn’t bad, but not too great either. However, if you keep using the Work Harder option and don’t have any issues with your coworkers or supervisor, you should get promoted in about five years to Marine Biologist. This would pay you about $52,000 to $55,000 per year during your first year or two on the job.

The last job in this career path is Senior Marine Biologist, and you can get there in five years if you, once again, keep your Performance bar full while working as a Marine Biologist. That means you could earn about $72,000 to $75,000 a year once you’re in your early-to-mid 30s, though this will, of course, increase considerably if you keep your Performance bar filled up. That should have you set to start a family, buy a house, and maybe an expensive car, though this is definitely not the highest-paying job in this guide. That honor will go to the very next one, which is…

How To Become A Magistrate In BitLife

Working as a College Dean is already high-paying enough as it is for non-celebrity careers in BitLife, but working as a Magistrate is even more so. It will also take a fair bit of time in the in-game universe before you can apply for such a job, but before we move on to that, let’s talk about the preferred stats if you’re trying to create a future Magistrate. Naturally, you will need to have high Smarts in order to be on the right track to this high-ranking position, and the same routine would apply after you re-roll enough until you get a high-Smarts Bitizen. (Or have God Mode.)

That means performing and behaving well in school, attending college, and joining a fraternity if you’re popular enough. Political Science is typically the best course to choose when selecting your college course, but that should definitely not be the end of your scholastic career — you’re going to need to keep your grades up and use the Study Harder option as often as you could in order for you to get into Law School.

magistrate job in bitlife

Unlike Graduate School, Law School would take four years to complete, but once you’re done with it, you can get a job as a Junior Associate. When talking about entry-level salaries, this is one of the most lucrative in the game — you can earn about $55,000 to $60,000 right away once you join a law firm and start out at the bottom as Junior Associate. After five years, provided you’re getting your Performance up by using Work Harder (among other steps we’ve already covered), you can get promoted to Associate, which pays about $80,000 to $85,000 per year in your first couple of years.

After four to five years, the next step would be Junior Partner, which has a starting salary of $100,000 to $105,000 per year. Next up, also after about four to five years, would be Partner, which pays $125,000 to $130,000 if you’ve just gotten promoted.

Related: BitLife Careers Guide: How to Become a Financial Advisor, Physical Therapist, Professor, Pornographer, Chiropractor or a Chief Pilot

Now Partner is normally the highest possible position in the Lawyer career track, and if you try to ask your Supervisor for a promotion, you’ll be told that there aren’t any higher positions. That means you’ll need to stick it out as a Partner for several more years — all in all, you’ll need to be working in a relevant capacity for 30 years before you can apply for Magistrate. That means you’ll typically be in your mid-to-late 50s once you become eligible for the job. But it’ll be worth it, as Magistrates in BitLife typically earn about $160,000 to $170,000 in their first year and could get promoted to other positions in the Judge career track, starting with Magistrate Court Judge and all the way up to Chief Justice, which could pay around $195,000 per year and beyond!

How To Become A Computer Programmer In BitLife

Compared to most of the other careers in this guide, we’d say having good Smarts is not as important as it is — for example, you’ll certainly need it if you’re trying to become a Magistrate or College Dean, but if you’re trying to be a Computer Programmer, all you need is decent Smarts at birth, perhaps around 50 to 60. You can always join clubs, use Study Harder, and avoid the temptation of getting into trouble if you’re trying to get your Smarts up and ensure yourself of a college scholarship.

sr computer programmer job in bitlife

But even if you don’t do all the steps we mentioned above, there’s still a good chance you’ll be able to get into college and choose the right course for a Computer Programmer. Computer Science is the most obvious choice, but Information Systems might work as an alternate choice. There is no need to attend graduate school — you can apply for the entry-level job in this career track the moment you graduate from college.

That entry-level job is Junior Computer Programmer, and your starting pay will be about $45,000 to $50,000 per year in most cases. That’s well above the average for entry-level salaries in the BitLife universe, and if you perform well enough and don’t get into any trouble with your boss or your coworkers, you should be promoted in about five to six years to Computer Programmer, which initially pays about $80,000 to $85,000 per year. This time, you’ll need to work another six to seven years if you’re trying to make it to the third and final job in this career track, which is Senior Computer Programmer.

That pays about $110,000 to $115,000 at first, and if you’re doing the math, you should be able to get promoted here by the time you reach the age of 35, or slightly older. That’s a $100,000-plus-a-year job well before you reach middle age, and a comfortable means of living that doesn’t require any fancy post-graduate degrees!

How To Become A Cardinal In BitLife

When it comes to the religious career paths in BitLife, there’s no specific statistical requirement. You don’t even need a college degree in Religious Studies, though as we’ll be explaining in a bit, it might be preferable if you have one. But you can enter the priesthood straight out of high school, and if you work long and hard enough and make the right sacrifices, you could reach the game’s highest religious position, which is Cardinal.

When talking about making the right sacrifices, we are, of course, referring to celibacy. We’ve seen instances where our virtual priests are able to carry on without consequence despite hooking up with various NPC partners — and even getting married, in one case — but that was several updates ago, so we would suggest avoiding sexual intimacy with anyone and staying away from trouble in school and avoiding any vices our acts of delinquency before starting out on the path to becoming a Cardinal, and once you’ve already started out as an entry-level Deacon. This is a job that doesn’t pay much, even once you get a raise — to be specific, we’re talking about a starting salary that usually falls below the $20,000 mark.

cardinal job in bitlife

Once you get promoted to Priest, you will earn about $42,000 to $45,000 annually in your first year, and getting promoted to Bishop will raise your annual salary to about $62,000 to $65,000 initially. Archbishop doesn’t pay much more — think of a starting salary of around $70,000 to $75,000 a year. And finally, Cardinal still won’t pay you a hundred grand per year, as it isn’t uncommon for first-time Cardinals to earn $80,000. Being a man of God, in most cultures, doesn’t jibe with being a man of great riches, so we’d say it’s understandable that this is a career track that doesn’t have that much earning potential.

Related: BitLife Careers Guide: How to Become a Runway Model, Veterinarian, Real Estate Agent or a Dental Hygienist

Now as we were saying earlier, you can become a Cardinal even if your highest educational attainment is high school. But based on our experience, it could take quite a while before you get there, which makes it a good idea to finish Religious Studies in college to fast-track your path to the highest ranking in-game religious position. Our test character entered the priesthood at 20, became a Priest at 37, a Bishop at 54, an Archbishop at 73, and finally, a Cardinal at the ripe old age of 91. You can, however, take solace that you’ll likely live to the age of 100 or thereabouts if you did as we advised earlier, which is to avoid vices and keep your nose clean before and during priesthood.

How To Become A Marriage Counselor In BitLife

Last, but not the least, Marriage Counselor is yet another career in this guide that won’t require you to pursue post-graduate education. You will, of course, need to have more than just a high school diploma, and you’ll need to have decent Smarts at the very least when starting out. Once again, it’s the same process to ensure a smooth path to college — no shenanigans in or out of the classroom, use Study Harder whenever possible, and join clubs if you need to improve your Smarts. And when it comes to your choice of college course, Psychology is the obvious one you’ll want to opt for.

marriage counselor job in bitlife

Just keep your grades high all throughout college and join a fraternity so you can bypass the interview (in most cases), and you should be on your way to starting a career as a Marriage Counselor. It should immediately appear among the job options if you’ve just gotten your Psychology degree. Once again, there is no need to pursue higher education after college!

Unlike the other careers in this guide, there isn’t anywhere else to go after you become a Marriage Counselor — it’s the only job in the career track, and your Supervisor will tell you so if you ask for a promotion. Your starting salary will normally be around $34,000 to $40,000, which may not be much if you come to think about it, but if you stick it out long enough to get the Marriage Counselor career (that is, work at least 20 years in the same job), your salary will likely be double that of your initial pay by that time. That’s certainly not bad at all, even if there are other, more lucrative careers in the game that could allow you to live a more comfortable life.