Hi, first time poster here seeking some advice about getting into the industry. A little bit about myself, I've just finished my third year at university for Software Engineering and Game Design (Although this is the name of the degree, functionally it means I have a software engineering degree, but all my available electives are taken up by game design courses). I want to get into indie game development, and start my own studio eventually, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to get there and finding the jobs that'd lead me down that path. Over the last couple of years, I have tried to get into the industry via internship positions, but I don't live in the US and have had few opportunities, none of which even ended with an interview. As such, I've spend these summers working for a telecommunications company, which utilizes my skill set, but is a far different industry.

My goal is to get experience in the industry, but not even getting an interview for the positions I have applied for is disheartening. I'm not just applying to coding positions either, whenever a position opens up for design, QA, level design intern pops up I've applied to them. I have a portfolio, but it's only populated by a few short demos and programs, as well as some design documents I've written. I'm also working on my own game with some friends, but process is slow due to mismatched schedules and us working full time (not an excuse, I know, I'm trying to push myself to work on it more). I guess my question is, where do I go from here? How do I get more experience in the industry, how do I look more appealing to companies? Am I just worrying too much and this won't be an issue once I get my degree? What are my next steps?