This is great advice generally. I'll add my .02 to one part of it as someone who has hired a bunch:

Having a portfolio is great, much better than not having one. But I am very little impressed by toy projects where you built a CRUD app or whatever. Again, I'm happy to see that you've done it vs not doing it, but you know what I really want? A real project where you built something that you cared about and that solved your own problem.

This is, even today, differentiating. So many toy projects, so many class projects! At best, you will convince me that you adequately learned how to do thing x but I come away knowing nothing else about you. On the other hand, if you show me the app you wrote to track your D&D sessions, and you excitedly explain why you had a need for it and how it fulfills that need, I will straighten up in my chair and pay close attention.

The nice thing about this advice is that it is a) universally applicable, whatever your level of sophistication, and b) the most humanizing possible strategy. Work on something you care about! Build something awesome that makes you excited! Talking about such a thing lets you showcase your best, most enthusiastic self. I will hire for that all day long. Or at least, I did, when I was doing that.