It's never too early to get a group!
To advertise you want a group, type /lfg. That will put a tag above your head, and put you on the list of those that are also lfg. You can also type "/who all lfg" and get a list that way.
You also have a LFG window. Look at the top of the screen by your name. You will see an exclamation mark and a magnifying glass. Click the exclamation mark to toggle your LFG on/off.
Click the magnifying glass to bring up your LFG window. From here you can select how to search, and bring up a big list of everyone that is LFG.
If you just want to show those in your current zone, select "This zone only" and you'll see a smaller list.
It's fine to announce once or twice in /ooc that you are LFG, just don't spam.
Quests are a great way to get loot, exp, and items (armor, weapons, etc). Since you will be killing rats and snakes, you may as well do a quest for them. :) All of them? Probably not since there are quiet a few. Do quests to get yourself well equipped, maybe a bag or two, then head out to the big critters.
In fact, you could probably get to level 14 by only doing city quests and killing very few mobs.
Good luck and welcome to EQ2. :)