How I doubled my salary (40K -> 72K)

I'm sorry if it's slightly off-topic but if you want to solo bootstrap your own startup, you need your own money.

Starting point

As fullstack developer (Java/Kotlin, Typescript, mainly backend focused) I worked for 3500€ a month. Not bad for Czech Republic and it's not easy to pass 4K € here.

Vision

I don't need to be excellent to earn more. I got few friends that earn "better money" just because they work in richer countries (Germany, Austria) and that was my main focus.
I quit my current job decided to refuse all the job offers lower than 300€ / MD, while also refusing all offers from country where I live in because even if they offer compensative salary, they expect you to be dev-mage (high expectations).

Searching...

If you have LinkedIn account with some history, you don't have to search for a job. They search for you.
I had maaany offers from domestic country that I rejected and just told them what's my bottom salary line.
I'll be honest, I wasn't developing almost at all during the break. That came at cost when I was on technical interview after a few months without coding and I couldn't remember the basic methods that kotlin library offers (online IDE did not offer suggestions feature).
After 3 months I got a job for polish company NetGuru. It was only 2 months contract to develop backend service, but that's a start. After that I took another break for 2 and half months and since April I'm developing bank systems for biggest bank in neighbour country. Also without searching, just waiting till it comes.

Take away

The main point is to

• be comfortable with failure/rejection
• say your demands
• you may get 9 times NO, or 29 times NO and 1 YES and the latter counts
• be prepared it may take some time

My situation can be different then yours

I'm in Europe and salary here may not be as high as in other countries. I often see you guys to complain on many rounds of interviews. Not here. I may have 1 technical interview, 1 screening and that's all. No more, probably less. Good developers have to be searched for and there's a lot of agencies to do that or companies have their own people to search for them.

Last words

Just don't forget why you are here. Your on Indie Hackers to get your own business. Until you succeed in that, you may need money/skill to get there but that's just a few steps on the ladder to get you to your dream. Stay motivated 😉

(if you are curious about my prev exps, you may check it here)