Cheat 1.
“I’m one of the main contributors to X!”
Open source is an incredible way to add value and also a wild level-up in interviews. It’s actually really easy to become a core contributor on relatively popular libraries. Even without being a core contributor, you get to tell prospective employers that you’re a contributor to one of the packages they likely use (and they can easily confirm). This is the ultimate quick and dirty cheat - and is highly effective. Use the issues you solve for people as a connection-builder. After you’ve talked to somebody on github, follow them on twitter, be social, see if they have job postings, and then you have an automatically warm intro.
Cheat 2.
“I’m a technical startup founder of a bootstrapped startup (check it out here ______) and I’m looking for contract work to keep the cash flowing while I pursue my passion project.”
Found a startup. This might sound hard, but there’s tons of low-hanging fruit ideas. It takes a few weeks to build an MVP of any idea and < 100 to make an LLC and using tools like Laravel Spark you can even bootstrap a full account dashboard / everything you need to get customers. This is especially valuable for freelance leverage. Prospective employers of freelancers are way more into seeing prior art than your education.
Cheat 3.
“I found you on ProductHunt/Angellist, etc. Absolutely love the problem you’re solving. Would love to help in any way I can.”
Go to early stage startups and offer your talent on contract because you like what they’re doing. Most startups have decent technical screens, so if you have the chops and are willing to offer the startup a great rate (or if you can, work for equity) your actual portfolio here won’t matter as much. Find super early stage startups on the new list on Angellist and just directly DM the founder. I’ve hired multiple people who’ve done this to me at Flatfile and it usually works out (low risk for the company if it doesn’t). Also pick a cool brand and it’ll pay intense dividends.
Cheat 4.
Apply for every talent network you can. Most allow you to re-apply infrequently so no-harm, no-foul if you fail the first time around.
With your education level, you should honestly be able to get through screening for sites like Codementor, Toptal, Upstack, etc. (there are dozens) - a lot of these networks focus on critical skill evaluation more than necessarily job history (although it does come into play with the rate your able to fetch in-network, so 2-3 still stand). Once you’re in network, somebody will help you set your rate and generally you can line up jobs relatively quickly as long as you’re being competitive.
Hopefully that was helpful!