At the moment it is pretty pointless "gearing up" until you are rank 15+ anyway as the benefits are negligeable at best. Also you'll outgrow equipment so quickly due to 1-20 being so fast paced. On most my jobs I waitied until rank 20 before gearing up seriously.

By that point I was participating in rank 20 levequests were you can get up to 25k+ rewards. Also behest every 30 minutes grants 3-6k.