I do things like change my miners' job title into "Legendary Miner" once they reach that state.  Then, when I'm tearing through a section of rock that I absolutely need 100% production from (rare ores, gems, etc.), I turn off mining on the normal miners and turn it on for the Legendaries.

Similarly, my useless immigrants get retitled as "Trainee", so that I can set them all to pump operation (*Iron Screw Pump* - the Dwarven Bowflex!) to toughen them up before they get recruited into the military.

One strategy I use is to make every single dwarf in my fortress a miner. I tend towards ridiculously massive construction projects. The starting party of 7 works much faster when all of them can mine at once versus one deticated miner. Plus when dwarves hit legendary miner I retire them and give them another job.

When danger threatens miners make great militia because the mining skill allows them to fight with a pick. And by the time sieges become a major danger I have replaced all of the copper picks with steel ones.

Rock Paper Shotgun compiled 15 DF tutorial videos from Youtube. Seems like a great way to learn the basics.