Have to agree with Harsha here. If your GPA isn't high, you WILL have a problem finding internships and eventually jobs in engineering. A lot of jobs and internships will deny applicants under a 3.0 without even looking at the application, while many others set the bar at 3.2 or 2.8. When it comes to employment, look at your GPA as an indicator of the number of opportunities you'll have out of college. If you have a 4.0, nobody's going to deny you an interview (but they absolutely will deny you a job if you bomb it!). If you have a 2.5, you better pray to God you have some sort of connection. There are plenty of companies that put less of a focus on GPA and are more liberal with giving interview opportunities, but someone with a 2.9 probably has half of the employment prospects that someone with a 3.1 has.
If you're looking to go into industry, your GPA matters up to a point. The differences between a 3.7 and a 3.5 and a 3.3 are pretty insignificant, especially if there are balancing factors like research experience, relevant extracurriculars, etc. Companies look to hire people, not numbers. Once you get in an interview room your GPA couldn't matter less. There are plenty of 3.8+ students that do not have personal skills or relevant experience, and there are plenty of 3.1 students that do. If a hiring manager has to choose between a 3.9 student who can't interview and a 3.1 student who can, they're going to take the 3.1 more often than not.
tl;dr: GPA gets you an interview, skills and experience get you a job.