Can someone explain what jobs do to me?

[Rydin]

What's the benefit? Is there any reason to play as a lv31 Black Mage instead of a lv31 Thaumaturge? To me it looks like its just a name change that gives you fewer options. Is there more value to it when I level up?

People will hate me for this but no... there is no reason to play a 30-40 job (Bard and WHM)
And thats in a party... solo... AFKing, on the login screen, sidequests... company quests

wait until the 40 quest

jobs are designed for parties mostly,sleepga is very usefull for dungeon runs ..etc , there is also flare,freeze,burst.

I stay away from blanket statements like "Jobs are for party, classes are for solo"
each job/class is a different case

convert is worth it alone

bad Syntax... bad bad syntax.. no... no....

Convert is NOT worth Conj, Lnc, War, GLA cross classed abilities
ESPECIALLY not if you have a bard with you