As far as making level 8, if you've got enough enemy portals in your area, you can do it in a month fairly easily. Your weapons are now getting better fast.

Actually, so far most of my activity has been hacking and recharging, with some linking.

Glyph hacking helps too.

Yes, indeed. I just got my second (= silver?) Translator medal, with 2,009 glyph hack points. An experienced player told me that most agents don't bother to learn glyph hacking. Heh.