[mytailorisrich]

For sure, what area you get into has a big impact. Language, industry, etc. but there is also the "career strategy" aspect. If your aim is to maximise income and progression, I'd say you should target high growth companies and teams, for internal promotion opportunities, and send your CV out every 2 years, for external promotion and salary increase opportunities.

By 'growth' I mean increasing headcount (perhaps not the best period right now...). If you're in a company or team that has no plan to increase headcount then opportunities for meaningful promotions (expanded responsibilities and scope) and salary increases will be almost nil.