Jobs are not really anything like you think they are. They are more of a specialization. They don't even have a level.

Basically, it goes like this:

You hit Gladiator 30. So you do the first Paladin quest. You beat the quest and unlock the ability to spec to paladin. So you are always a Gladiator, but you can push a button to become a Paladin. Your stats instantly become more specialized towards tanking, and you are allowed to equip "Paladin Gear", but you are still confined to sword/shield because you are still a Gladiator in essence. As a tradeoff, you lose access to pretty much all cross class abilities.

In addition to this, every 5 levels (35, 40, 45, 50) you can do another quest, that will reward you with Paladin specific abilities that can only be used as a Paladin (such as a Pali-specific healing, or a really powerful Voke, etc.)


In essence what this means is that jobs will be used to create defined player roles that will work well in parties, but when solo-ing it would be more beneficial to just play a class (for instance, a Dragoon will not have access to any heal spells and so would not be able to solo.)

Hope this helps.


EDIT: Dang, got beaten to the punch.