D’où viennent nos chiffres, et à quel point nous en sommes sûrs.
How salary ranges are estimated and how roadmaps are built, so you can plan with realistic expectations.
1. Our Core Research Philosophy
Career decisions require transparent, unvarnished information. Many career portals present inflated salary figures or cherry-picked compensation numbers to create artificial excitement. At DraftMyCareer, the aim is to provide grounded, realistic estimates that you can use for planning.
The salary ranges for our 90 roadmaps are DraftMyCareer estimates: each career has a typical range for each region, written with reference to public labour statistics and published salary reports. They are not taken from a single official dataset, so every estimated figure on the site is labelled as an estimate.
Where an official figure exists and has been checked, the roadmap quotes it with its source and year instead (for example NHS Employers pay scales for UK nurses, doctors and dentists, or the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for registered nurses). Careers with no reliable data say so rather than show a made-up number. Regulated careers’ licensing facts cite the regulator’s own documents. Roadmaps draw on standard certification frameworks and published requirements. Last reviewed: 23 October 2026.
2. Data Sources & Benchmark Modeling
The estimates are written for the site’s 12 regions (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Australia / NZ, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Remote (Global)), with reference to sources such as:
National Labor Market Statistics
Public labor agency datasets including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS OEWS), UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), Eurostat, Statistics Canada, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and national statistical labor reports.
Industry Salary Reports
Published industry salary reports and publicly available recruitment data, used for reference.
Standardized Educational & Certification Frameworks
Curriculum blueprints from accredited licensing bodies, professional certification boards (e.g., CompTIA, AWS, CPA, Bar Associations, Medical Boards), and open-source vocational standards.
3. Experience Levels & Salary Ranges
Rather than a single average, each career has a typical salary range for each region. The experience level you choose selects a part of that range:
Entry-level / Junior (0–3 years)
Early-career levels are shown toward the lower end of the career's typical range.
Mid-level (3–5 years)
Mid-level is shown around the middle of the typical range.
Senior (5–8 years)
Senior levels are shown toward the upper end of the typical range.
Lead / Staff (8+ years)
Lead and staff levels are shown at the top of the typical range and can extend slightly beyond it.
4. Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) & Cost of Living
A salary in San Francisco or London does not buy the same as the same amount in Mumbai, Madrid or Berlin. So each region gets its own figures: either a range written for that region, or the career’s typical range adjusted by a regional factor, shown in the region’s currency. The figures are before tax and do not model taxes or your personal cost of living.
When comparing roles across global regions in the Salary Explorer, users can see estimated ranges in local currencies (e.g., ₹ LPA in India, £ in the UK, € in the EU, or $ in the US/Canada).
5. Career Switch & Timeline Modeling
Our Switch Careers engine analyzes the transferable cognitive and professional skills between origin fields (e.g., Non-Tech Operations, Mechanical Engineering, QA, Support, Data Analysis) and target roles (e.g., Backend Engineering, AI/ML, Cloud DevOps, Cybersecurity, Product Management).
- Skill overlap: Each transition lists the skills the two careers share and the skills still to learn. Overlap figures are editorial estimates, not test results.
- Realistic Timelines: Each switch shows the destination roadmap's own duration. How long it takes you depends on where you start and how many hours a week you can give it, so we do not promise a fixed number of months.
- Estimated Salary Uplift: Projected compensation deltas are estimated ranges based on historical median differences between origin and destination occupational classifications.
All salary figures and transition timelines presented on DraftMyCareer are estimates and educational benchmarks for career exploration. They do not constitute guaranteed compensation offers, recruitment contracts, or individualized legal/financial advice. Actual market compensation varies significantly depending on specific employer tier, equity and bonus packages, individual candidate negotiation, macroeconomic hiring cycles, and regional sub-markets.