Hey Spivo, that's pretty much what I did - choose your background, they I sort out careers suited to it by trait (you can nominate one trait from background to be assured) of all the ones I sort out 3 are picked as the actual "ones to chose among".
We have dwarf outcast trollslayer (dwarfhold tbd), high elf academic student, averland human noble pistolier (will spend CP's for affluenc and be noble), averland criminal forger and ostland foriegn messenger (has yet to tell me from where in Ostland, I don't think he knows Wolfenburg's fate though actually his backstory makes it more likely north on the coast). Mostly comrades from BF pass with that as bond, the elf (who ended up fighting there purely through misadventure) having improbably saved the dwarf's life explaining that odd coexistence.
The little plays are fun. Might use some of that as recurring background events. Puppet shows one time, actors in Plenzerplatz putting on a "Scene" from a play to help sell tickets at Sulky Sun another time etc.
PS, I realized my materials mispell the Captain's name as Baerfast instead of Baerfaust. I always explain such things in handouts etc. to players as simply being the fact the Old World has not developed standardized spelling (or grammar) so my handouts never have "errors' just "realistic effects"