Have you considered gold coins? I thought that was popular amongst thieves as well as something with desynthing in gold smithing. Gold masks? As far as the money making issue goes at least. I've heard steal/hide is effective. Not sure what it amounts to in current profits. Also exploit an nm. By exploit I don't mean hacks/bots, but find some uncontested lower level NM and camp it for like 100k a pop or something. Holy phials are like 100k. Dodge earrings, etc. Go another direction and set up a enm group here via the events forum.
Farming is good, but don't make it your bread and butter. Dance around in various markets and hopefully that will help the gil issues. Camping items that you need for your job is also good-- if you have emporer hairpin camp empress and sell the non-rare ex one for money to spend else where.
I don't recommend leveling up another job to get into an end-game shell as the better alternative. Truth be told, most in end game have so many multple jobs to fill almost every position within the shell. Your better, more established ones will want to get to know you and your playstyle. Your newer, smaller, still becoming established shells will generally pick anyone who will accept their pearl as they need members. Being reserved, and a quite person has its merits-- on the downside without the right connections it might be more difficult to advance. People helping people results in better equipped players and better karma.
And don't get too overly zealous about getting into an end-game shell unless staying in a zone for several hours is your bag. Many enjoyable activities within this game that don't require being involved in an end-game shell. Event/social shells might be a nice alternative to consider. Good luck.