Perhaps it's entirely legit, but it just seems so, so strange to me.
Then Google happened. Google elevated the Web into a real software engineering platform, and suddenly this novelty thing we were doing was taken over by the hardcore CS graduates.
Our friends and family were like "why don't you go work for Google" and we had to explain how what Google does and what we do are different.
I think that for some people, especially those who have worked in Web their whole careers, the desire to work in that kind of product environment is very appealing. So I would say this person is probably legit in their desire to work at Google.
I have no opinion on whether working at Google is worth it or not. But even if you end up not liking it, I suspect just being there opens a ton of future doors. It's a win-win if this guy is successful.
2 decades later I'm still not sure!
I took the web route and always dreamed about tackling C and embedded systems. I did some hobby work to learn it but without doing it every day at work, tough to keep it going.
[1]: Yes, still weird.
I just ran across free code camp a few days ago on reddit. They have an interesting pitch, learn to code then build a portfolio by building stuff for nonprofits.
The motivations I couldn't speculate on though
He hopes it'll help him land that job at google?
He is already making his pitch: I read x books but you only need x-6 books to succeed. Sign up today, space is limited.
Here is another promotional post from two months ago:
1) If he's not hired, how is he going to sell his service? People will say "He couldn't even get himself hired!"
2) If he is hired and does a side job of teaching others for Google Interview, that's a gigantic conflict of interest (and probably a breach of NDA). He will be fired.
Is he planning to get hired, quit on the spot, and then start his tutoring service? (Well, stranger things have happened...)
Of course, things get muddier since Google does almost everything. But I doubt they'd want to engender ill will by suing an ex-employee for ownership.