Portfolio Pieces

(Re-post from /g/)

I am a recent graduate with a diploma in programming (Community College hurray) and I am struggling to sell myself as a potential employee to companies seeking programmers. All job postings seem to require a “Bachelors’ degree in computer science or equivalent experience”.

Clearly I do not have a bachelor’s degree – or any experience for that matter. I am asking for anyone here with some experience to shed some light and please suggest some portfolio items that I can include when applying for jobs that will make employers more interested. I have the strongest experience with C# and less experience with C++. I have worked with Java, VB.NET, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, etc. but not enough to even consider myself confident in them. I have studied enough database knowledge to work my way around MSSQL/tSQL, creating and maintaining a database (Stored procedures, etc.).

I have a clear grasp on separating layers of applications (UI/Business/Data) and working with databases to retrieve information from them, populating the UI layer effectively and using stored procedures top manipulate/change the database.

Would it be smarter to build one “bigger” application that highlights different points of knowledge? (Data/Business/UI layer abstraction, working with databases, UI design, multithreading, etc) or would you recommend several smaller applications that illustrate these points? Any examples of your choice that would make a good portfolio item to work on?

Thank you for your time.

TL;DR don’t want to lose my college education troubleshooting smartphones, please recommend some portfolio pieces to show employers

>>8
Of course, you'll be teaching yourself, which is not a great way to learn, but as I say it can work.
Most CS courses are horrible Java or Sepples-based piles of poo-poo. It is much better to do self-teaching using SICP and experimentation.