Some places hire at that rate, especially in low cost of living areas in the US. Plenty of companies pay more, even for 0 YOE.

I'm in a low cost of living area in the US. I got the same reaction from some recruiters in 2021. One recruiter insisted that, with my 2 YOE, I'd be lucky to find anything paying 80k. He scoffed and barely kept himself from laughing out loud at my range.

But what those recruiters mean is that THEY can't offer you that much, and you're only useful to them if you'll take less, so you should come down to their range.

In that same search, I interviewed with multiple companies (not big tech) that confirmed budgets above 90k base, and the offer I accepted was over 120k base.

That said, I took my first dev job at around 60k. I had no degree or boot camp, I really wanted out of my previous job, and I knew I could try again much more easily after a couple years. It was the right move for me at the time.

this is really awesome, good stuff. the no degree or bootcamp background into a job in a relatively short period seems really hard to do and I know lots of people who are interested in a similar jump.