...embark profile...
I think the game is just more (maybe less) realistic now, about giving worldgen dwarves some skills they've learned during their past life. A point in swimming apparently, I think climbing and/or jumping (is it a skill?) were mentioned in the dev posts. And I have no idea what discipline does. I assume it's discipline, not discipling, which would be the skill of being a disciple or something. You have a good point/idea on combining carpentry/masonry with trader/doctor though. And nice to see you use geese, IMO they're the best for meat, growing the fastest during their first year, due to being 3rd-largest at full size but reaching that full size in only the 1 year.
...embark profile...
I'd swap mechanics to be the primary skill of that dwarf, it's much harder to skill up than mining or masonry. In fact, if you want a chance to mood it, that dwarf will almost certainly have it's mechanics skill outpaced by the others, so you might as well not give it to him/her if that's what you're hoping for.
In general advice, sheep/llamas should be much better now that spinning wool doesn't use the whole stack to make thread any more (at least it shouldn't, I think). Grazers, of course, but that's the price of wool (not a price of milk due to pigs!).
And getting back to the topic, thanks to PeridaxisErrant for the quick assembly of the pack!
Yeah, that was a typo it's discipline lol. No, it isn't being a disciple, it's military discipline. It keeps them from panicing (although depending on personality even some with high levels will still panic, even at the sight of a gobbo corpse). It also raises very quickly and easily on military but civilians don't seem to raise it unless they have a point in it (at which point they will raise it when they make a check against it; like walking by that corpse pile).
I started out doing the high mechanics, but I've not found it to be very worthwhile (although high-level mechanics migrants seem admitedly rare). I'm not hugely into traps and the mechanism quality doesn't make enough difference otherwise (if at all). You do have a good point about skilling it up, it is slower than many, which is why I noted it as an alternate. Mason levels up quick and easy, but there's generally a lot of need for masonry from the get go so starting with a few levels helps. Mechanic on the other hand, some mechanisms for levers and linking bridges and floodgates and I'm generally done for year 1. Mechanic spends a lot of time slacking unless you are big into traps, so I find it best combined with other roles.
I don't care for shearing, I never know when is a good time or how many times per year, it seems to cause many cancelations in the workshop (same for milking, granted I put in more farmers shops this time), it's a pain keeping a pasture (although current game I flooded out a few huge rooms, will go breach caverns for fungal bloom and then pasture that sheep I have inside, pig tails are unavailable at start on the map I'm playing and silk is slow without a pet giant spider). I try to get off the surface completely, otherwise a walled pasture and surface farms are ok if that's your thing.