1. For a newcomer, is it more feasible to become a validator than a miner to get involved in the crypto space?
2. Where should a newcomer go to educate himself on becoming a validator?
3. Which projects are the most popular to run validators for?
4. I do also have offices, it is better to run them versus home connections?
Yes it's a great thing for beginner to become a full node (validator). Mining would require deeper knowledge and bigger investment.
To get your hands on bitcoin you can become a full node and contribute towards the community.
Although it won't make you earn anything but will make you help the community and increase your knowledge on bitcoin.
To run your full node you can download bitcoin core from it's official repository and configure it.
I will provide a few links to the guides below to get started.
The bitcoin core is the official project to run the full node.
Yes, there's no harm in running a full node either from your home or from your office. Only a stable internet connection and good amount of storage is required to keep the full node running.
Guides :
https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node
https://bitcoin.org/en/posts/how-to-run-a-full-node
Download :
https://bitcoin.org/en/download