I entered the world of Vana'diel as a monk, and haven't looked back since. It took me a little over 3 years before I level a second job to 75, and that was only because i had the Usukane to put it in.
I would say most of the monks reading this post, the ones who leveled monk as there first job, had just as bad, and probably a little worse getting our belts back in day, trying to compete against every single HNM LS.