I've been telling newbies for a while now that they need to have a portfolio, preferably one that is web-accessible, like a GitHub account. In the past I've had direct input on hiring and one of the biggest factors was always code samples. We spent more time discussing a candidate's code samples than any other thing. Sometimes we even spent longer than the interview.

Don't worry if some of it is garbage code. We understand that some things get shared on there that aren't up to snuff. And feel free to tell us which ones to look at.