There are many, many, many more possibilities besides "coded income" and "PC payouts".
Seeing people above talk like those are the only poles of the employment/economy/income landscape makes it sound like autojobs or salaried positions are the only options OTHER THAN making deals with PCs.
Even between PCs, buying and selling to each other or hiring each other for errands aren't the only possibilities. And PC-to-PC deals aren't the only possibilities either - NPCs have the power to give huge payouts if they're earned.
"Buying and selling" doesn't have to be limited to low-price, low-margin, low-fun trades. "Errands" doesn't have to be limited to "get me a pack of cigarettes because my brand isn't sold on this sector". People who are in this thread talking about what THEY know, only know what they have seen. Or dared.
What you DARE to try is usually possible, with or without GM support, as long as the RP makes sense. The thing that usually makes people's wishes (for a job or another goal) is that their RP doesn't make sense.
Like someone said, you don't work your way into a job by posting "hire me" to Craigslist, though if you're a freelancer this can be ONE THING you'd try. So if your RP is limited to posting to the Employment forum on the grid, that's no RP at all.
Likewise, demanding work from a person who has no idea who you are, whether you're any good with your skills, and isn't observing willingness, trustworthiness, and maybe some ass-kissing and cooperation on your character's part, isn't going to work either - NPC or PC, it doesn't matter, this will fall down either way. Same with arm-twisting and posturing - be ready to back it up or get smacked down, if this is the tactic you want to try.
To me, the real problem here is less that new players enter the game and "expect a job to show up", but more that since they're new they haven't seen how having their character meet other characters, interact, live their lives, learn about the brand-new city they've just arrived in as a naked, feeble, clueless immigrant, is roleplaying, which is more the point of the game than getting set up with income, grinds and automated tasks.
It's a strategy game, in a way, but the strategy isn't in min-maxing your efforts-and-profits according to coded rules, until you can build your character's gear set with coded objects you spend on. The strategy is in managing your character's relationships with others, the information they're able to receive and trade and KEEP to themselves until the right moment, in roleplaying your way into either learning where the killer opportunities are or creating some.
It doesn't happen overnight. Yes, you might need a "job" while this plottery is happening. No, "job" doesn't have to mean a grind. Ideally, even a salaried job is actually an opportunity for exercising your character's skills and making extra money off that via RP with people inside or outside the business.
I'd give examples, but, one of two unfortunate things are likely to happen: Either someone will shriek that I just spilled IC info OOCly and that people should learn it by roleplaying their character into learning it (I actually agree with this to some extent, it's a gray area), or else, people will take it as a recipe for success and next thing you know every new character will be pursuing the job stated in my example.
