My way of always looking at the 1st level and experience in the world thing is...<br/><br/>For a mideival setting, most people started life at 11 or 12 years old as an apprentice. By the time that they are 15, many have married and are making a living of some sort, gathering/hunting foodgetting journeyman crafts and having children. By the time that they were 18, they had recieved some basic training in their profession of choice and have experienced some part of the world in that part that they had cause to be in. Scholars have learned enough to teach some basics, smiths are working totoward their master level skills, have seen something of the immediate world and have achieved 1st level.<br/><br/>All common NPC's are 0th level. There are actually 0th level classes in the Pathfinder system (Optional) like apprentice, warrior, acolite, etc. By the tie you've earned 1st level, you have a minor bump and a couple of more skill points. Even when not used, I coul see the process that leads to how a 1st level character, with his/her basic skills and training, having worked up to that point. It's very likely that the hired for pay thing... all of the traits... suggest that the characters started out as 0th level and traveled/met the professor as 0th level characters and worked up from there.<br/><br/>Our GM could even, if she so desired, allow the PC's to retroactively pick up an "expert" class as a 0th level background thing. It would give some litigitimacy to the histories and a slight bump to 1st level.<br/><br/>So, in the end, PC's aren't born 1st level, they live up to it... and have lives before it.