salaryFoo

* I work with pretty niche enterprise devops software. My Linkedin profile is 100% oriented to selling my skills with that software (Note that there is a real risk that this software will be out-of-fashion in five years)

* I give a proper reply to everyone who contacts me on LinkedIn, even if the work they are offering is totally unrelated to what I can/want to do. The frequent spam is a small price to pay in return for being in everyone's database.

* I'm very upfront with my day-rate and get rejected by most of the recruiters/companies that get in touch with me because it's too high. This is fine and intentional because there is enough demand to get that rate anyway (so far).

About three years after graduating I stumbled into some extra freelance work a school friend passed on to me. Then got lucky again by finding myself in a well-paid (for UK) devops niche.

- 2009: £1,000/yr Mostly depressed, unemployed and unmotivated. Some income from teaching English and arbitraging signup bonuses on gambling websites. Lived close to rent-free by subletting rooms in the apartment I was living in. (Spain)

- 2010-12: £8,000/yr English Teacher (China, full-time)

- 2012: £20/hour PHP dev (China, freelance)

- 2012-13: £16,000/yr Rails dev (China, full-time)

- 2014: £72,000/yr Rails dev (London, contracting)

- 2014: £102,000/yr Devops (London, contracting)

- 2015-16: £60/hr Rails+Go dev (SE Asia, some remote freelancing but mostly not working)

- 2017: £120,000/yr Devops (London, contracting)

- 2018: £158,400/yr Devops (London, contracting)

- 2019: £192,000/yr Devops (London, remote contracting)

devops

As another data-point: My day-rates as a long-term contractor which have some decent year-on-year increases from switching clients

2012 £200 (first time programming for money)

2013 £300 (new client)

2014 £425 (new client)

2015 - took a year off -

2016 £500 (new client)

2017 £650 (same client)

2018 £800 (new client)

$250k USD / £190k GBP UK-based devops contractor in a niche enterprise open-source technology. Long-term, sometimes remote, contracts.