Where's your github profile? Personal site with demos? Projects you contributed to? Anything counts, man! Even toy projects you built in a weekend just for fun, if they show your ability to reason about a problem.
I only hire people with work I can see in Open Source projects.
It's just not worth my time to try to sort through the people who claim skills that don't actually have them, particularly for contract work that is short-term. I might be willing to go through a long interview process for a full-time employee that I expect to invest significant time and money in, but for contracts? It's just not worth my time. I can look at someone's github, SF.net, CPAN modules, Drupal modules, etc. and know within minutes if they're worth working with. Why would I bother with someone that doesn't have anything to show?
In a recent job search I've found a github profile full of interesting projects to attract far more attention than job history and education. From my perspective employers really do seem to have a problem finding people that can actually write code and solve problems. A github page (or website with demos) just makes it so much easier for interested potential employers to quickly get a sense of your style and skill level. In design, architecture and other similar fields a portfolio is standard, it's actually somewhat surprising that this hasn't taken over in software.
Also, FOSS is a big deal. Got spare time? Do FOSS, more FOSS, more FOSS. From my personal and anecdotal experience, after your first job it's gonna be so much easier, if you manage to deliver and make some connections, and participating in open-source projects will make you a better programmer and hopefully help you land a job.
It's just not worth my time to try to sort through the people who claim skills that don't actually have them, particularly for contract work that is short-term. I might be willing to go through a long interview process for a full-time employee that I expect to invest significant time and money in, but for contracts? It's just not worth my time. I can look at someone's github, SF.net, CPAN modules, Drupal modules, etc. and know within minutes if they're worth working with. Why would I bother with someone that doesn't have anything to show?