Hi Oli,
Most places obviously want the best qualified people and your SolidWorks experience alone gives you a leg up on other entry level IDers. At a “2+ years experience level”, though, most employers just want someone with common sense knowledge of molding principles so that the ideas they contribute take into account a technical approach that will be closer to feasible than impossible.
As for the “2+” itself, the talent you show in your portfolio & samples is far more valuable than however long you’ve been previously employed as a designer.
Any reputable place is going to have hybrid CAD people supporting any 2+ ID person, or a senior ID person passing higher level SW assemblies over to manufacturing (factories, etc). I have seen a few start-ups where the 2+ ID person was asked to be field researcher, ID proposal creator, brainstorming coordinator, sketch maestro, hybrid CAD person AND manufacturing liaison - and in that case it either results in bad products, organizational failure or the coming of another Leonardo da Vinci.
Just my 2 cents. 