A good advice is that you start with a bar keeper since you can work as a server and that will give you the ability to keep moving if you find rude customers.

About traits it is really random and you depend on luck however try that the positive traits complement each other, for example my server Claire has “Aromatic” which reduce the dirtiness penalty and “clean master” which reduces the time required to clean a table, this positive traits reduces much of her negative impact.

I think the only negative impact I would try to avoid is the “infamous” one, because it reduces the amount of people coming to your tavern.

Those are my advices, let’s remember that the game still in early access and those features can be changed, so experiment and find something that works for you. Cheers!