Help with distrib. experience points

[playingdumb]

Greetin's all ^_^ Been playing through the game for all of a couple of hours, and already I'm enjoying myself; seeing the effect of SEIV components this close up is a rush in and of itself. But getting to the point, one topic I haven't been able to find on this board is how you'd spend your exp; given the low trader job xp, is it even worth trying for a merchant character build? And which of the repair skills have you found most useful, if any? Just hoping to cop a few tips out of you ^_^