EVE New Citizens Q&A

I question the wisdom of recommending a POS at this point.

While it is true that standings are not longer required to set one up we know that POS are leaving the game in the not too distant future as the planned new structures are introduced. For you just getting back into the game and with your friend just starting it might be best to take a wait and see attitude on the POS thing.

If you do choose to POS, the be sure to look into them carefully and calculate your costs. A POS with a reasonable set up of arrays and defenses is not really expensive, but it is not cheap either and even the smalls will cost you roughly 200,000 ISK per hour if you have to buy fuel blocks. Here is a page to get you started on the POS, No POS decision.
EvE University POS Set Up