Thats what I've been doing. My resume lists the dozens of projects I've completed. Out of every 50 resume's I send out, I get maybe one interview. I don't think anyone even looks at my github. As soon as they see I don't have a degree, they throw my resume out.
You should not primarily be attempting to get interviews by sending in 50+ resumes. Instead, try to get 5 coffee dates with people with the authority to hire engineers.
Resumes are an institution created to allow people to throw out resumes.
Meeting people on the phone is totally doable, especially if you have an introduction to them or have pre-demonstrated credibility somehow. It doesn't 100% play to my strengths, so I did a lot of flying around back when I was doing active consulting. My engagements were worth ~$50k apiece so taking a $10k trip to a conference (or just a target-rich area like, say, SF) was totally doable if it got me four later stage conversations with a 25% chance of closing apiece.
Typically it would look something like "4 week prospecting trip, fill up 2~3 quarters worth of consulting engagements, fill up last quarter while delivering." This was a hard schedule to sustain after getting married, which is one reason I'm not actively consulting anymore.
But there are many, many ways to do this. A more successful consultant in Ogaki does 90% of his prospecting over Skype.
I've done both technical and non technical interviewing and screening and here's what I've picked up. You probably already know all this, but these are the biggest mistakes I've witnessed...
Try to hit the key words, keep it simple but professional, and keep it crawlable -- don't stray too far from the traditional resume unless it's part of a strategy. this means don't send me a markdown file, or anything in a plain text document, don't make it look like a Google search (it really happened, looked awful and conveyed no useful info) and if the reader cannot immediately pick up on your history in under 10 seconds you've already been screened out..
Send a pdf, so you have better control on presentation, or at worst a .doc file.
This all sounds superficial, but getting hired is a game that has to be played.
This. Focusing on it will make you seem like its an area of concern for you. If you can produce well at the job, make that clear by showing evidence (projects).
