I washed airplanes for flight time. I don't remember how much I got. It was too long ago.
I had my com/multi/instr with 250-300TT and got a job flying traffic watch in a C172. I flew 6 hours per day and flew about 1200 hours my first year. I also instructed in between rush hours. I built time real fast, but not multi. That was the hard one to get for me.
I had the MEI, but not enought hours multi to instruct (insurance). I rented twins when I could to build time slowly. I got a right seat corporate job (from working the ramp nights) that led to a left seat job and finally had hours to be a MEI. Then I went to the airlines with 4000TT and I can't remember how much multi: less than 1000.