"Almost no developer "take 3-6 months off to study for their next position", please do not distort reality, that might happen to some but def not the norm. I'd say the normal is 1 week to 1 month of studying on the evenings after work."
I've seen a number of posts on HN where people are taking significantly longer than one month. If the reality is as you say, then that is trivial and the whole basis of the OPs post (and the vast majority of people's responses here) is moot.
Most of that reputation is really past performance and experience on cases. Things like win %. Devs don't have any similarly standard comparison metrics.
The time people will study is based on the ROI of doing well in the interview. Software engineering has huge salary incentive for interviews so people study a lot. Mechanical engineering has mostly flat salaries based on seniority and manager level so ROI for studying for interviews is 0, so nobody does it.
I've seen a number of posts on HN where people are taking significantly longer than one month. If the reality is as you say, then that is trivial and the whole basis of the OPs post (and the vast majority of people's responses here) is moot.
Most of that reputation is really past performance and experience on cases. Things like win %. Devs don't have any similarly standard comparison metrics.