I am looking through career skills and it says you can buy into another specialization. It says "each specialization has career skills. These skills now count as career skills..." p93. My question is, do you only gain the 4 bonus career skills or do you also gain the 8 career skills, assuming you are buying an out of career specialization?

no, you only get the 4 specialization skills as new career skills

no, you only get the 4 specialization skills as new career skills

Indeed. The 4 bonus skills belong only to the specialization, and the 8 career skills belong only to the career. They are distinct from each other. And you only ever have one career (the one you started with).

I really look at skills when I buy another tree and not just talents. If they are useful, the direction I want my character going, and I don't already have them that is a big plus to me. I view skills as important as talents if not more so.

Agreed. Saving 5 XP per level doesn't sound like much but it sure adds up.

For Talents I mostly look at (1) what ranked Talents do I already have, that I can get more ranks in (if I think more ranks will actually be useful - some ranked Talents, you might want to get 5 iterations of; some might just not be worth it); (2) what non-ranked Talents does the tree have that can expand my capability in a way I want?

That is only 25XP per skill over the 5 ranks, or about 2 game sessions of time, total. Not a big expense for getting one skill up over buying a specialization just to make that a career skill (20 or more XP for the specialization).

That is only 25XP per skill over the 5 ranks, or about 2 game sessions of time, total. Not a big expense for getting one skill up over buying a specialization just to make that a career skill (20 or more XP for the specialization).

If you buy a spec and only get one new skill. I don't think we said we buy specs 'only' to get the skills either, just that it is a big factor.