NIT mechanical grads in core jobs , how did you make it, and was it worth it?

Hi , I wanna know about people who made it into core mechanical jobs (psus/private /R D/manufacturing etc)

What was your cgpa?

Which NIT were you from?

What skills/projects/software helped you the most?

Did you get placed through campus placements or through GATE?

If through GATE, what was your rank?

What companies did you get into?

What was your starting package/lpa ?

How is your life now honestly work culture, stress, work life balance, satisfaction, etc?

it feels like everyone in mech either switches to IT or prepares for something else, so I want to hear from people who stayed in core and how things turned out for them.