how did you plan out and build your characters?

[Roogle]

First time through I just got everybody everything and used whatever seemed best/convenient. More recently I've tried to loosely fit the zodiac job system to my characters in the original version, blending role-playing "jobs" with the practical concern of who has a comparative advantage (to use a term from Economics 101) in a given weapon type or skill.

Does the Zodiac Job System imply who is best in what role? For example, does Balthier start out on a default job class or is everything set manually at the start of the game or upon character recruitment without any default options?