Real world project in data science

I have been working in Analytics since close to 3 years and been wondering what would be the best way to pivot to data science/machine learning as all the roles require atleast 3 years of hands on experience which I don't have unfortunately.....

I've done couple of mini projects on Data science but hiring managers don't seem to be impressed as they would be looking for someone with production environment exposure. so my question is how do you show you are competent enough w/o significant hands on experience?