If flying from A to B sounds boring, you're probably looking for a career as bounty hunter. You'll need cash (as always) and more importantly some combat practice, both easily obtainable in Resource Extraction Sites; either high or low density.
The ship really doesn't matter as long as it's not a lumbering school bus. You want to practice maneuvering around an enemy while pointing your weapons at him and evading return shots (aka "stay on his six"), which is something different in a 6DOF game. Eagle is most definitely the ship of choice and since you're not doing any heavy lifting its payload is more than adequate. Just remember to not get shot at too much.
If you did trading before you can of course sacrifice some agility in favor of a more expensive and sturdy ship. Just be aware these cost more insurance and outfitting is more expensive.
Secondly you want practice micromanaging your capacitor. It's not about balancing the settings, it's more about maxing the specific system you need the most. Put power into ENG for a quicker turn, into SYS to increase shield resistance, into WPN to keep firing. In a dogfight you might do that every few second and it requires quiet some multitasking and muscle memory, so keep on it. It will give you a slight edge.
Before you undock make sure to install a Kill Warrant Scanner and put it in a firing group. Once in space see if there is a Resource Extraction Site (high or low) on your left hand nav panel. If not, ffly to another station and check there; this is to minimize flight times later.
Once in an RES, try to find a System Authority Vessel. They should usually be in a formation, making them easy to spot. They will respond to any fight breaking out in the area and otherwise pursue and scan any ships that come through, making them almost perfect wingmen.
Your job will be keeping around these guys and scan every other ship for bandits. If you find somebody make another scan with the Kill Warrant Scanner to maximize your profit. Pirates may scan you in return, looking for valuables, but they won't find anything and bugger off, so just wait till they are done. That allows you to go into position behind them and initiate combat. Unless another fight broke out elsewhere already, your 'buddies' will come to aid you.
'Agro' works similar to most RPGs out there: AI will focus on the target doing the most damage. Once your 'buddies' step in they should quickly draw attention, leaving you free to maneuver and deal damage. Focus on not being in front of the enemy and hold fire if you actually got 'agro'. Don't worry about dealing the killing blow, you'll still be fully rewarded.
Sometimes you can be lucky and don't have to do anything. Police would quickly scan some Pirates, allowing you to step in and claim a reward for scanning and shooting once. Just make sure "wanted" shows in the target info, else opening fire would be considered a crime, even if the Police is already engaging.
Even luckier if you got a good spawnset. A 'spawnset' determines which kinds of ships will spawn when the area is being populated (first player entering). You may get something like Vipers, Cobras, Asps or Anacondas, Clippers, FDLs. Heavier ships generally offer more reward for less flying around, so if you're alone you can simply leave and re-enter to see the kind of ships you got.
You can make 500k - 2.5m per hour, depending on how much luck you get. Being able to deal damage without worrying about getting shot at helps speeding things up a bit and that's what you're working on anyways.