Ask HN: Any advise for portfolio projects?

I have been studying JS for 2 years in my spare time and working in general IT for 6 years. I am looking to land a full stack dev job but I feel like my portfolio is lacking. Node/React/Redux/Redux-Saga are some technologies I would love to work in and have been making little projects but I don't have anything that really stands out. Can anyone give me some example projects that I can put together to show of my programming chops?

Also bonus points if anyone can give me a good place to find my first position ... or even make some connections. I'm in the "need experience to get experience" catch 22 that a lot of people who are starting off get into.