I maintain my Ruby side-project for years and I opensourced some self contained parts of it (e.g. an extension to nginx), also contributed fixes to libs I use.

I maintain my Ruby side-project for years and I opensourced some self contained parts of it (e.g. an extension to nginx), also contributed fixes to libs I use. Over the years they got some stars, tickets etc. Although some people get impressed that I do some meaningful side stuff I think networking is much more important factor which helps me find a job. Especially in unrelated closed source envs, like enterprise Java. So I would suggest to talk with influential tech people around you, learn from them, stay in touch when they change job. Ask what they do, do they need help with their projects etc. And if you are good they should be happy to recommend you at their places.