Isn't one of the perks that Google is relatively low stress? Some of these xooglers may be in for a rude awakening when it comes to work-life balance.

x-googlers are expensive. most companies can't afford them. They'd likely need to sell with stock options and IPO prospects

I get weekly emails from HFTs wanting to hire SWEs and SREs for >500k base. These companies do exist but vary quite a bit in quality of life and stress.

What sort of background are they looking for? Out of … curiosity?

It's a very specific niche that I fall in: experience with managing OSS, lots of build systems, CI/CD, managing reliable systems (N+1, monitoring, latency management), C++ & assembly for x86, etc.

Essentially they want someone they can plop into a dysfunctional team who can help bring things back to a steady state regardless of the issues that are there while keeping everyone happy which is something I've done two or three times.

Rather then butting heads you make demos, convince people, lead by consensus, help put people in charge of sub projects that they can execute on, etc.

that sounds way more rare than most jobs

I started getting them at ~2 months at Google. I was no more qualified for those jobs then than I was before I joined Google. I got the seal of "he's a Googler, he's super smart" which currently exists. I'm not saying it's true. I've worked with baby googlers who somehow find the best way to nose dive the quality and reliability of all software at a company. I've also worked with others that can turn entire companies around and get them on track with amazing tech knowledge and leadership. I aim to be the latter and so far, before Google, I have a pretty good track record of doing that. The Xoogler mark just makes it easy for recruiting people to find me.

Plenty of unicorns around. They would love those googlers, and many are willing to pay SF wages in (say) Des Moines.

It's not a question of SF wages, but Google-in-SF wages. Which is VERY high. I think a citation is needed for your claim.

Good point, unicorns should be rare, let's just call them horses now, or better yet- donkeys.

I’ve had the same thought.