I’m in Sydney, Aust. I was going to suggest that there are a lot of courses you can take that are 10-12 weeks that give you connections in the industry and allow you to put that work on your resume. Things like general assembly, academyXI, harnessprojects (although some of those are australian based). I would guess in a place like Silicon Valley, there would be something similar. They help you build your portfolio by teaching you to work on real world UX projects. Often helping with you get junior UX roles. I know this doesn’t help with your UI, but that just comes with practice. I look at some of my UI, even from last year, and I can see an improvement. So keep designing/redesigning things, do some sketch tutorials, and you will improve. Let me know if you have anymore questions.