Not sure which class/job to choose

[Cythil]

I recently picked up the game (having gotten an itch to play an MMO again after dropping WoW months ago) and played for a day getting to the point where I am able to travel to other cities. However, I didn't realize that you get bonuses for playing on a Preferred server instead of a Standard one so once I get back from my vacation and can play again, I am going to start over on a Preferred server. However, I'm not really sure which class/job I want to go with. There are 4 classes that I am interested in. These are Paladin, White Mage, Scholar and Black Mage.

Paladin interests me because I've always been a fan of the sword/shield aesthetic and before I quit playing WoW I had wanted to try tanking. It just always seemed very daunting since you need to lead and I am worried that I will mess up and upset/anger people.

White Mage appealed to me because it seems like the typical healer playstyle they seem to have. However, it seems that they sorely lack DPS abilities, at least at low levels (though it only seems that they get a couple more at higher levels), and that seems like it will make both questing and downtime when not healing quite boring.

Scholar appeals to me because it is another healer. The fact that it levels a DPS job as well because of their ties to Arcanist is also quite nice. A pet healing class overall seems pretty cool. My worries are that 1. Their big graduation cap like hats won't show Miqo'te ears and 2. It seems like a lot of people are really upset with how Scholars were changed with the release of this new expansion. I heard they had a lot of DPS abilities pruned so I'm worried it might be in a similar situation as White Mage in regards to that.

Black Mage looks cool mostly cause of the flashy visuals. That's pretty much the reason I'm interested in it. It's a caster that's got cool visuals and I like the whole burn up/cool off phase thing they have. I'm just worried that DPS queues are too long and that it might be like WoW where I never could truly get into DPS because having to do a rotation over and over again might get boring but more importantly that I'll just be worthless compared to other DPS (because I did play DPS and enjoy it for a bit in BFA before I quit playing WoW and seeing myself so low down on DPS meters just made me feel useless. It's actually why I like healing because keeping people alive is when I feel most useful).

I am aware that this game differs from WoW and I can play all jobs on one character however I assume that picking one and leveling it first to experience the story is a good idea.

[Niwashi]

I assume that picking one and leveling it first to experience the story is a good idea.

Particularly if you're going to a preferred server, I'd actually recommend picking at least a couple to alternate between as you go through the story, and maybe more if you want to do any of the sidequests or other optional content as well. If you just have one, you're going to drastically out level your story progress. It kind of trivializes the story quests if you're playing them on a job that's way above your quests' level.

[Duskane]

well if you start with BLM first it will have advantage of easy EXP from story quest
While you can easily bypass que times with SCH,PAL and WHM because of there role

its clear you have interest in all of them probably should start with one thats a little harder to que for and get it out of the way

personally when i struggle to decide what to level next i judge by which job gear looks nicer