A degree can prove that you completed a course of study, but it cannot show how you respond to deadlines, unclear instructions, revisions, teamwork, or real responsibility. That is why employers often look for project experience even when they are hiring at entry level.
For a new graduate, this creates the familiar experience paradox: you need work to get experience, but you need experience to get work. The practical response is to create structured opportunities to complete meaningful projects before depending entirely on a first employer.
Projects make interviews more concrete. Instead of speaking only about subjects studied, you can explain the problem, your role, the decisions you made, what went wrong, and what you delivered. That gives an employer more information with which to evaluate you.
A strong early-career profile therefore combines education with proof of execution. The goal is not to pretend to have years of employment. It is to show credible evidence that you have already begun doing the kind of work the market expects.