Hey Guys, While you are looking for a full time job, what is the best way to get hands-on work experience? Is it by doing freelancing (If yes, then which places are best to get started)? Or, are there any other options available?

Open source contributions. They will help in gaining knowledge and also add lot of value to the resume

I also pick some open source project during that time. It leads to good conversation during interview sometimes.

Building a reputation online is the highest leverage activity

You choose which is easier & more aligned with your goals - if it's open source or getting paid online or having 3 mind blowing upwork reviews or having an insane github profile etc - all are great indicators

Open source looks like a viable option. Freelancing on Upwork or similar platforms, is difficult, especially if you are a beginner in this domain (with < a year of work experience), I feel. Are there any suggestions on how a beginner might get paid gigs?

Blogging. picking up a topic that you are interested in and writing about it

Open source can be very slow and it's not something you can build up overnight. I would suggest technical writing. As it also allows you to go deeper into your favourite areas. Display your expertise using well detailed writeups.

I agree with Kapil. Open Source is a solution that is thrown around a lot, but it may not be for everyone. Although there are great projects out there, not all of them are good at helping beginners get a hold of thing, the general consensus is that since it is OS, as a contributor, you need to figure it out, and this may not be for everyone. So you need to find projects that are beginner-friendly, have a decent on-boarding process, supportive, decent-sized community. You'd need to find an OS project that you use and care about, because then the problems and bugs will matter enough to you, when you come across any (and you will because you use it) you'd be driven to solve them. Blogging, Tech writing and personal OS projects have lesser barrier to entry and still work as a good portfolio.

I would like to add few points supporting Open source. Open source is relatively easier than we think. I personally didn't write much of blogs as I don't like to write, for the sake of writing. But I love to view the source code of frameworks I use. So, I felt kinda natural to do open source than to write blog. Secondly, Open Source is not just about identifying issues, bug fixes or adding new features. Documentation is a great place to start contributing. There are many projects which needs a proper documentation or translations. I believe that is one place which needs lots of help from the open source community. Just my thoughts though! :)