how do you play GTA online

So I just got the game recently on my Alienware Alpha, and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but whenever I get online it seems like most of my time I'm trying to join other players to play with only for something to go wrong.

I am playing on my Alieware Alpha which I have upgraded to 16 GB RAM and an SSD. The Alpha comes with an Xbox controller which I use more than the keyboard/mouse to play. I change between controller and K/M on the fly as I see fit.

I get notifications on the phone to join jobs and bring up the phone and join the the jobs from my phone but many times it says I am kicked from the lobby or I fail to join the lobby altogether.

other times there are not enough people who join the lobby to start the job.

I am getting tired of having to wait to join a job and would just like to jump into a job and not have to wait so much. Please let me know if there is something I am doing wrong that I could change that would help me get a better experience.