You mostly want to creep around and try to avoid the ARC as best you can at the beginning, well and the middle and end too unless you go out with the goal of killing them for parts. You are looking out for players, mostly.
But at the beginning, get in, fill up your backpack, and get out. You want to sell/recycle items for materials and build up a decent stash of both. And you dont have to go to the areas on the map marked with yellow or red boundaries to find loot (although your quests later on will certainly have you going there), it's everywhere on the map. Staying on the outskirkts and looting the apartment buildings on Dams battlegrounds or exterior buildings and avoiding hotspots is a good strategy until you start getting better guns or more comfortable with PVP combat because thats where they sweaty bois head immediately when they spawn.
From here, you can start spending your credits on better kits to bring into the game.
There is a guide on what to keep and what to sell/recycle somewhere -- you will want to check in on that ASAP so you dont end up selling something that you need to upgrade your work benches or build your expedition.
I remember selling 3-4 rusty gears before finding they are somewhat rare (not really, if you know where to look - car hoods and busses), but I was kicking myself after.
So basically you want to build up your stash (credits and materials), upgrade your work benches so you can make better stuff, and keep your eye out for blueprints because even though you upgrade your workbenches, you still need to have blue prints to be able to make most things that are worth crafting. Make sure to check out what bench items you need for the next level and click the "Track Resources" or whatever button. this will create a visible icon on each piece of loot that you need while you are looting topside.
If you are low on stuff, take in a free kit. You wont have a safe pocket, which sucks, but you can still make it out a decent amount of time with a full pack.
if you extract with a free kit augment, you can trade it at the clinic for a green augment which does have a safe pocket for your next run.
Ferro and Stitcher are good guns, kettle is OK (unless you are a macro abuser), and rattler is (still) trash -- these are grey guns you get from a free kit.
Also, you can use ARC power cells to recharge half of a light shield if you are in a jam and have no more rechargers. (Almost every arc drops at least 1 + the husks you can find on the ground).
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!