I'd like to try to spread the XP around my group, so that I'm frequently ranking up both my experienced soldiers and my new recruits.
I'm pretty sure that I get XP for killing an alien, but are there other actions I can take during a mission to maximize my XP gain?
For instance, this guy, my newly minted Corporal, Marcel Petit:
He's got a grand total of 1 kill. He's just made Corporal though, so that's 2 ranks in 4 missions with just one kill on record. He's not been stunning aliens either (this is so early in the game I haven't researched Arc Throwers yet). I didn't get him as a quest reward - these four missions are the only ones I've played.