Guidelines for aging beer...

I'm a noob at this, my second batch is an American Pale Ale that has been in the primary for a little over a week now. Took a gravity measurement and it's down to where it should be. The instructions just say to bottle after fermentation has stopped unless you rack to secondary, then it's a few weeks. Question is, are there guidelines out there as to how long beer should be aged by type? What is the advantage of aging in the primary as opposed to just conditioning/aging it in bottles? It tasted ok, a bit hop forward but I expected that since it's still pretty young.

Its really personal preference. You will get as many opinions as there are brewers. I'll start with mine. I do all my brews 4 weeks primary 4 weeks bottle conditioning. Some recipies benefit more than others from extended conditioning. I have found that the darker brews tend to have a more marked improvement than the paler ones. Also, hops tend to become less pronounced as time goes by. Your mileage may vary.

3-4 weeks primary. Some larger brews may need 2-4 weeks secondary. I would say 3 weeks in bottle to carb up and most are ready for consumption. 1-2 weeks in the fridge is also usually beneficial.