What's important is that you develop your own style of making 3D things. Companies aren't looking for the 1 millionth person who can model a Ferrari or BMW.
Character modeling, a unique style, excellent skin painting and so on those are things that count nowadays.
Catching up with the competition will be very tough, on the other hand CgTalk gives a good impression on how good you have to be to get noticed and hired. Plenty of people from the industry show their work over there,
Cheers