The harp is a lie.

[NoctisUmbra]

Here I thought we were all on the same page on Jobs if we were discussing Barcher in such detail.

It is indeed as a few others have said before me. From what little we know so far, a Job will in fact be something you explicitly unlock. It is not simply extra abilities for Archer. You will, in some fashion, have the ability to switch into a Bard. The level of the job will be based on the level of the class that it is linked to. However, in a similar fashion to how classes gain access to new skills via guild marks, jobs will gain access to new skills via special quests.

So simply put, even a rank 50 Archer will not be a fully developed Bard just by unlocking it, but will have to do numerous quests to gain further abilities.

How I expect Jobs to play out is once you unlock the job itself, you receive some starter gear, such as starter weapons, for said job. They clearly appear to be specialized. It is known that the level to unlock jobs will not be 50, so whatever starter gear one gets would be at the level of the quest that unlocks it - leaving further room to develop the job since you will want the highest level job-specific gear. It only makes sense to me, because I can't imagine Archers simply turning their Crab Bows into lyres after unlocking a Bard. It would also be equally silly if you unlocked the Job and could not switch to it.

In any case, there isn't much known about Jobs as it is clear they do not want to say too much about them just yet. Much too early to pass judgement on the job system overall at this point.