And recruiters at companies that didn't list a minimum (e.g. Cisco, HP, MS, Amazon, Google) told me not to bother applying with my GPA.

Company I did get hired at, which is definitely a software company, told me later I only got hired because nobody thought to ask me my GPA.

Sure, that's why I mentioned dev/it companies specifically. Those old school companies are automotive/aviation engineering with dev/it related departments, which is not the same.

It’s a good distinction and I haven’t noticed dev/it companies caring about GPA. I went to school at Penn State where the engineering career fair was dominated by old school companies which cared a lot about GPA.