I found my first job through a job fair - but I had several internships before that. Small projects are great to show that you have interest in programming by default. It will definitely be worth something. But I reckon my internships helped me quite a bit in getting them to talk to me. After that, it's a whole bunch of technical questions, coding, etc.

Networks and job fairs are fairly useful. If you attend conferences or talks, get to know the people there.