I (note: not the original commenter you are responding to) would say that "something to show" equals experience, but with more solid evidence. You could learn a

I (note: not the original commenter you are responding to) would say that "something to show" equals experience, but with more solid evidence. You could learn a lot and gain some experience and network and have fun just by participating in some open source project that interests you (or that uses some of the technologies that interest you). You can do that on the weekends or evenings while you keep your day job, it won't cost you anything, and in the worst case it is just good karma. ;-)