I played a soldier in the first game because I heard the combat was weak, and made into a better "shooter" by playing soldier. Then I imported to ME2 and was stuck with soldier. (I played ME1 like a week before ME2 came out, so I only had one save to import)
I've thought about playing through again, but I'd really feel the urge to play through both again so my ME2 game would be an imported one.