The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)

I found this fascinatingly counterintuitive. I would normally expect that a broader market leads to lower prices for commodity goods. If I can only buy candy from the vendor at the movie theater, I expect to pay a higher price than if I can buy it from all the stores in the region, which I expect to be higher again than if I can import it from anywhere in the world. The reverse is true for developers? The companies with…

My first tech job in London was at a medium-sized (~300 employees) tech company HQ'd in Seattle, with London being 2nd largest. Not long after I joined, one of the team leads left for a largish fintech, and slowly brought the rest of his team with him over the next couple of years. Despite this constant brain-drain, management refused to address the salary issues. After a couple of years, I left to go there too, with a ~60% raise(!). I…