Before we move on...
I will start with a disclaimer.. I am not fond of the zodiac job system. I don't like it really, that's why I decided to insist on playing this game and really pour my mind on this job system thing, even though I prefer the legacy License board from the PS2 version of the game.

Disclaimer over.

I still occasionally see a post on what job to pick for what character, and, I'm not a fan of, and neither am going to, tell you what to do. But I'll explain to you what my thought process was for the jobs I picked for my party on my actual playthrough. Whether you follow in my footsteps or decide to do something different, it's up to you and I'm just happy to help.

Let's start with:

These stats were taken from the character at level 55, with no gear on, no license board perks or anything. It's important we understand that. Only the relevant stats will be considered

Now, before we move on, I'm gonna ask a couple of rhetorical questions just to make my intentions clearer: If you were to pick one of them to be the tank of the party, you would pick the one with the highest amount of HP, right? The same would be for your spellcaster, you would choose the one with the highest Magick power, correct? Moving on... But to drive the point home....

• Top 3 Strength: 1 Basch, 2 Vaan, 3 Balthier.
  
• Top 3 Magick: 1 Ashe, 2 Penelo, 3 Vaan.
  
• Top 3 Vitality: 1 Fran, 2 Vaan, 3 Penelo.
  
• Top 3 Speed: 1 Balthier, 2 Vaan, 3 Fran/Ashe/Penelo
  
• Top 3 HP: 1 Basch, 2 Vaan, 3 Balthier.

It's a Top 3 since parties consist of 3 members, so there's no point in doing a top 5.

But now that we got this info, we can move on.

Now here is a summary of what each job entails, if anything, hopefully you'll find this section useful.
P.S.: LB stands for License Board. What you can find most interesting there, and "Occasional" are those licenses floating in the void, separated from the body of the license board, accessible only through Quickening, Summon, or a second LB. + HP is always the sum total. HB stands for Hand Bombs.


Hopefully you'll find this small section useful, or at least better than having to sift through the license boards in the game in order to decide which to pick.

Moving on...

Now for this part of the guide, I will simply link the damage formula wiki page[finalfantasy.fandom.com] in case you are interested in knowing in detail how the damage works, but for simplicity sake, I simply ask some questions:

What uses Strength? Swords, greatswords, spears, rods, crossbows do.

What uses Magick power? Katana, staves, Maces* do.

What uses Vitality? Axes & Hammers, hand bombs do.

What uses Speed? Daggers, Ninja swords, bows do.

Now with all this information, we can start putting together which job goes to whom and what party can we make with our guys.

By the way, if you are wondering about Guns, I will simply quote the aforementioned damage formula wiki page:
"Used by measures and guns. Damage is not modified by target's Defense, and varies more greatly from randomness. Unlike other formulas this is not modified by the user's level."

I rest my case about Guns (and Machinist as a consequence, jk)

Even though we are very close to figuring out the best jobs for our characters, we still need to ask one last question: What do we need to have in our party, preferably at all times?
Well, we need a tank, a healer, a support, and if possible a ranged unit.
Now here starts the problem because we need 4 things and the party can accommodate only 3 members... Well, technically the ranged unit is optional since it can be substituted by an offensive spellcaster... it would just be nice to have a ranged unit.
And also, thankfully, characters can have 2 jobs, just like Americans...

So the optimal party would consist of a tank, a healer, and a support. Tank and healer are pretty straightforward, just the support is a bit of a question mark, what kind of support? That will depend on you (Depending on the kind of support you pick (spellcaster), you undo the whole need for a ranged unit, even though a ranged unit is a support itself)

I'm droning on already...
Also, quick note: you can decide for yourself what your party needs at any given time. And nothing is stopping you from rerolling your characters down the line.
One such example is the in my humble and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ opinion, quite weak Machinist job WHICH against Yiazmat, if you are autistic enough to build, can be a great support in the fight, casting Hastega while dealing decent Dark Elemental Damage from the back row.

Now that we got our top 3s, the jobs well laid out, the damage types are known and the party necessities are laid out as well, we can start making some inferences.
Per example, for Tanking jobs, we could pick Uhlan, and Knight, and Monk as well, depending on preference. And the characters that could fit best as tanks (Vaan doesn't count because he could be anything), we would have Basch and Balthier.

Balthier doubling as an Archer to have a ranged unit for backup, since he got the best Speed stat, he would be the best fit for Archer.

Penelo could be a Bushi, or a Red Battlemage, however that doesn't mean she should since she got the least HP out of all of them. You can compensate with the LB HP buff but a Penelo Bushi would be weaker than an Ashe Bushi, or a Vaan Bushi (Maybe not in damage output with a Mace as a Red Battlemage because Maces don't use strength in their damage formula, only magick power, but overall she would still be weak).

For support we could have people with Magick power, Vaan as versatile as fck, could be a DPS and a support, a Bushi a Red Battlemage, he could even be a Mage, although it would be a waste of his potential focusing only on his Magick Power.

Hopefully this was enough to help you a bit choose your party's jobs and what not, and in case you are curious, I'll upload a screenshot of my party.

Now that I'm done explaining how I chose my party, I would like to make clear the intention of this guide. To provide a baseline for examples, so people contribute with their builds and you can pick and choose for yourself.

Cheers.