I'm a bard atm, and I know you can pick different skills from certain classes, but what's the highest level skill you can choose from the list? I don't want to level to 40 if all i need to do is level to 25.

ahh i see i'm looking at my skills on my level 10 lancer, and the skills when hovering over them shows which jobs they work for... nice

I played 1.0 and starting new now, but each class has different level "good" skills. One job can have one at level 10ish like cure from conjurer while pugulist has 1 good skill around 47ish. Its random. Just look for guides on the best skills and target those levels per job.