Career advice for mechanical engineering

Hi i 20M studying in a tier 2 college in Chennai, india as a mechanical engineer (pre final year). I've studied diploma in mechanical engineering and now persuing engineering

I am currently learning MATLAB (in their official website) just cuz a random person in discord told me 😑, and i already learnt AutoCAD, Catia and solidworks in a private institution while studying diploma. I don't want to do a IT job due to job volatility so i didn't learn any programming language yet (now i regret not studying atleast 1 programming language)

My father working as a maintenance manager in a private company says that mechanical engineering is mostly about manual labour. I don't want to believe that

What I aim is that atleast 6LPA in placements (but seniors say it's nearly impossible and only 2 companies come and offer you 6-8 LPA 😭😭).

What are the things I need to do before placements knock my door ?