Hey. You will find some enemy camps by simply exploring the world. Make use of mountains – they will make your sight radius on the world map huge so you can find camps easily.
As for contracts, I know it can be hard to find decent ones in the beginning. Always check what kind of contract it is, you can always decline it later. Sometimes there are 2-3 skull cargo deliveries that pay quite well in the early game and aren’t dangerous.
Actually, if you’re playing on beginner you can probably afford decent-ish armor from the start and you could do those 2-skull contracts without much problems. Sometimes 1-skull contracts are way harder than 2-skull. Don’t let it scare you off. Just skip 3-skull contracts if you are not confident because those can be really difficult sometimes.