Getting hired is easy, the tough part is working on your own stuff. For me the cycle is usually like this:

1. Make a cool pet project

2. Show it to The Internet

3. Get a little exposure, feel awesome, decide this project is going somewhere and you'll work on it for months on end because it's just that awesome

4. Freelancing offers[1] start raining in

5. Realize you actually don't have any money, are a student and don't have a lot of time next to classes

6. Accept one or two freelancing gigs

7. Pet project dies a miserable death

8. Rinse and repeat a few months later

[1] I freelance for startups, always for startups. Usually I'm the guy they go to for "Hey, so uhm, I hacked this prototype together in two weeks now there is more than 1 user. Everything is breaking. Halp."