Some really are. I know several who I wouldn't classify as all that skilled, but they hit the right check boxes, and they're making $160k-$350k a year a year or two out of college or even high school.
The way this works is that each check box you can hit, no matter how arbitrarily increases your market value x amount.
- Have a UX portfolio? $40k
- Is it good and you know javascript? +$20k
- Have a couple of javascript frameworks under your belt? +$50k
- Show that you're language agnostic on the backend? +20k
- Have you made any videogames? +$30k
- Did a machine learning project once and know how to talk about the subject intelligently? +$50k.
etc. The thing is that not every job will pay for every checkbox, but if you find one that does you maximize your value. It's one of those matrix things.
The way this works is that each check box you can hit, no matter how arbitrarily increases your market value x amount.
- Have a UX portfolio? $40k - Is it good and you know javascript? +$20k - Have a couple of javascript frameworks under your belt? +$50k - Show that you're language agnostic on the backend? +20k - Have you made any videogames? +$30k - Did a machine learning project once and know how to talk about the subject intelligently? +$50k.
etc. The thing is that not every job will pay for every checkbox, but if you find one that does you maximize your value. It's one of those matrix things.