Ye, welcome from me as well. Lolberty Navy is a pretty good place to start up and get some combat experience (same goes for all house militaries if you're already familiar with basic pvp combat and want to try different systems/ships).
If you're more into cashing up try trading, Innerspace commerce it the faction you might wanna check out.
Another good way to get rich is with IMGs/Red Hessians, they are more into mining on borderworlds/edge worlds.
Hello Abscond, welcome to Discovery. If you are looking for good trade faction for start, Daumann is what you need, it's Rheinland trading/mining faction, lurking around Rheinland/Omegas mostly, but with interests in Bretonia, Kusari and soon Gallia.