Variability and luck are huge factors. The hard _employment_ offers I've declined since early 2015 fall in the range kEUR[40,500] total effective annual gross,

Variability and luck are huge factors. The hard _employment_ offers I've declined since early 2015 fall in the range kEUR[40,500] total effective annual gross, globally. >10x! Rising trend, but mostly scattershot. The really interesting part is that during the initial chats I have not been able to guess the offer coming at the end. The strongest correlation seems to be with location, but it is much weaker than most people seem to think it is: The same tech region brought 300k and 40k with just a year apart. Just two different companies in similar fields and roles. Another noticeable difference come from whether I reach out to them or they to me, with the latter often offering above median. I may be blind and stupid, but from what I see, employment salary is just bizarre. If you can, I recommend running your own most of the time, and accept employment only on the most interesting projects, if required.