CHARACTER PLANNING GÇô The Skills to Pay The Bills:

Your skills determine your abilities, both to use equipment and modules and your capacity on the battlefield.

GǪ.No, seriously, that's all there is to it.

What? You want more? If you want an open generalized suggestion it's this:

Week 1: Goof around on STARTER suits, have fun, figure out what is the most fun, figure out what you're the most effective at. Stockpile your ISK.

Week 2: Build up these two lines, fun and effectiveness, a bit. Pick up some general skills which will benefit you no matter what direction you go. Stay on STARTER suits or at most militia gear (Best if you've got the AUR for BPO's... the only time I'll ever advise anyone to have or use AUR for anything other than a Universal Voice Transmitter) to save up your ISK.

Week 3: Spec into a combat role and stick with it. As you recognize skills that will benefit your role, get them while remembering the top skill levels costs hundreds of thousands of SP and the time when you're only getting 3-4 skill levels a week will be on you before you know it.

Goof off whenever you get the chance. You never know when you'll notice something in a militia suit that will make you consider a particular skill or ability you'd like to see your primary suit running. If you're not having fun then you're doing it wrong. I know there are already militant corporations out there who will come to your house and burn it to the ground with you inside if you aren't comitted 110% to their New Eden ambitions, but seriously... Those guys will deal with one another, for the majority of us this is a game, even if we can get a bit serious in combat most of us are here to have fun and enjoy ourselves. Again, if you're not, then you're doing it wrong.

As for personal advice, it's this:

Dropsuit Command V (Unlock Various Tier Dropsuits, -5% Scan Profile/LVL)
Infantry Engineering II+ (Unlock Shield Operations, +5 PG/LVL)
Infantry Shield Operations IV (Unlock Shield Management)
Infantry Shield Management V (+%5 Shield/LVL)
Infantry Electronics II+ (Unlock Sensor Upgrades, +5% CPU/LVL)
Sensor Upgrades II (Unlock Profile Dampening)
Profile Dampening V (-5% Scan Profile/LVL)
Endurance V (+5% STA/LVL)

Yes, I know, it's a lot, but I'd put these on any suit, any build, any role, and so do some if not most of the top players in game. These are general passive benefits such as increased passive armor and shields, increased stamina, massively decreased radar profile. I'm not saying to get these right away or to JUST get these. Not in the least. Plenty of people have had a lot of success building glass-canons before working out these skill sets, but any competent soldier on the field knows and will take advantage of the benefits of these skills in particular nearly every moment in combat.