My experience so far is that the pacing has to be really different for a one-shot than for an ongoing game, because in a one-shot you really don't want a lot of dangling ends. So you need to ask enough questions to generate something interesting, but not so many that there are unsatisfying unresolved situations at the end of the session. This is exactly the opposite of what you want in a first session for an ongoing game, where unresolved situations at the end of the session are good.
Character creation is fast enough and has a large enough payoff that it's well worth doing it around the table, although you really do want to structure it, maybe working through it with each player in turn -- the first time I tried a live, in-person character creation bit I had five people asking me questions at once, and it was too much context switching -- it probably would have been more efficient if I had gone around the table saying, "Okay, Mark. Hardholder. Let's work through everything here. Okay, Missy. Operator. Your turn." Instead I was answering questions about gigs and surplus and want and fortunes and it was a little bit more of a challenge than I cared for.
I like the idea of insisting on one of the leader-types as a leader for the party to be connected to, but I prefer brainstorming a half-dozen different serious, immediate situations. If you get a gunlugger and a battlebabe and an angel to go with the chopper, the hit 'em hard missions work. If you get a skinner, a savvyhead, and a brainer, not so much - something sneaky and covert works better. But you do want something where there's a clear objective to accomplish - blow the fuel stash, recover the macguffin, kill the evildoers.