As someone who's done a fair bit of hiring, I'm happy to see anything out there at all. At least it gives me some real code to look at.
Of course, having contributed to (or better yet, created) a widely-used project is an even bigger plus. But something is usually better than nothing, unless that something is code so awful that it makes me not want to hire you ;)
How often have you been able to hire a core contributor or creator? I ask out of curiosity because it seems most of the OSS guys I follow are independent consultants, and don't fit the profile of being an employee somewhere.
Of course, having contributed to (or better yet, created) a widely-used project is an even bigger plus. But something is usually better than nothing, unless that something is code so awful that it makes me not want to hire you ;)