Hi Guys,
I'm really enjoying doing my own project and was wondering if there are jobs for the skills you gain through such projects?
Forum moderator, but the pay is lousy
AWOL:
Forum moderator, but the pay is lousy
Even given the software coding skillset?
No 
It depends on the country where You search a job. Visards, magic people, migh be wellcome in some developing countries. In the industrialized community education and background are the most important facts.
43 years in research labs. NASA, DoD, various branches of the military. you should see my junkbox...
I applied for jobs with industry. manager sees private pilot single engine land on my resume. "We don't do a lot of that around here"
I applied for jobs at research facilities, and the guy who controls this budget:
"Buy what you need to get the job done. you keep 8% of what you spend. don't bring anything you buy into the inventory until it is part of a working assembly"
...figures out all by himself that driving a vehicle through a dynamically variable fluid, navigating, communicating, operating, indicates the ability to solve multiple complex problems on the wing ( literally ) with no handholding.
Arduino, by itself, will not get you a job. being able to demonstrate to an employer that you can devise solutions to unique problems can increase the prospects of getting employment by people with unique problems and "add another zero" budgets.
they have CNC routers, 3d printers, CNC PCB engravers, mountains of 802.11 gear, hundreds of video cameras, and a bazillion pieces of equipment named with the creators initials, bearing serial number 0001, at my last workplace. when you do research, you invent the precision measuring tools, because nobody else is aware of the problem you are solving, because you are all alone on the bleeding edge.
the single most useful skill in this environment is the ability to explain what you are doing. blinking an LED will not get you to where I was. developing a mechanism that turns on multiple devices at remote locations seconds before the MOP goes off will.
and you need to build gizmos to this standard:
Arduino, by itself, no. Arduino as one tool in a robust toolbox, yes. and you get a better class of boss than those dull plodders in industry.
Playing around with Arduino in my spare time as a hobby for six years led me to a full time job with no prior education or work experience in the field. I never intended it to become my career, but that's what happened. Whether that is at all a common occurrence, I can't say.
My suspicion is that it's more likely that Arduino projects would lead you down a path that eventually results in a job. You make an LED project and that gets you interested in electrical or software engineering, then you go to school and get a degree in that field, then on to a career. I don't think school is the only path, but it is a factor in hiring. It's so much easier for someone doing hiring to see a degree and assume that indicates some level of knowledge and competency (unclear whether that's actually the case). Whereas with someone coming in with no paper, they have to make more of an effort to assess you. Will they bother? Then there's the chicken and the egg problem that the employer wants work experience, but you need to get a job to get work experience. Universities have programs to get you started on that with internships or jobs.
I do think that employers are starting to realize that a degree is not always a good indication of the quality of an applicant. I listen to the excellent Embedded and Amp Hour podcasts regularly and one thing that comes up regularly when they are interviewing people in this field who are hiring is that an applicant with a portfolio of projects is very much at an advantage. That portfolio can be made of hobby projects just as well as paid projects. In fact, you might be under an NDA with paid projects and so not be able to add them to your portfolio, or not go into the necessary detail. So I think there are now more opportunities for people to start a career in electrical or software engineering without a degree or prior employment in the field. In my case, a large factor was the volunteer work I have done. That should be an effective substitute for paid work experience.