A degree in itself will not mean much unless you have good campus placements from the college you join. And salary/job depends a lot on the initial placement. You start at 5 lacs a annum, then half the work is done.
After that, it come down to your skills (many will say)/luck( as I feel)
I did my engineering in IT and then went on to join a company in Pune in 2006. Since the last seven odd years, I have come across a variety of people some very successful, some not so, and it a total mix when you see it.
More is the technologies you work on, the project you get. Salary again in a function of them along with the number of jumps you make.
But one thing is, I disagree the PCM is hard. If that is hard, then some of the computational theories are even harder. Typically a good engineering college are more numerous than a good MCA college and placements are more likely with a engineering college than a MCA college.