[porker]

> To add another data point, I have slightly over two years industry experience and make what would be equivalent to a six-figure salary if I were a full-time employee.

I would posit that you also have very good sales skills or are working in an in-demand niche (mobile?). I would've loved to be there after 2 years' experience; alas learning to big myself up took a bit longer!

[londonymous]

I think rather than sales skills, what's helped me is having the mindset of consciously applying for jobs I don't think I'll get. The worst thing that can happen is that you 'easily get the job' — I like to think if more than 20% of your interviews result in an offer, your day rate is too low.

After starting out doing Ruby on Rails, I moved to backend development focusing on Devops/PaaS — not super-niche but definitely more in-demand than Ruby on Rails, which that's one of the reasons I switched (as well as enjoying it more). Furthermore it's has the advantage of being a Hot New Thing™, which means you gain seniority much faster — in Ruby on Rails it might take 4-5 years to be considered 'senior'. In a much newer technology (like Angular for example), you might only need a year.