Lee Gilmore, Serverless Evangelist, Principal Developer, Mentor and Cloud Architect, AO.com
Lee Gilmore is a serverless evangelist, cloud architect and principal developer; who has a passion for mentorship, coaching and continuous learning within the tech industry.
Lee has historically worked for FTSE 100 companies such as BT Global Services, and Sage PLC. He has recently moved to AO.com to support them with his vast cloud experience. In recent years he has architected and developed many cloud services which are used day to day by millions of customers.
In the past year, he has been working on writing a book and creating a free online course to support developers and architects across the wider community, all with a key focus on serverless technologies and innovative event-driven architectures in the cloud.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
LinkedIn hands down. There is no other space quite like it for building your network, meeting inspiring new people, keeping up with the world of serverless, and having the ability to share my own experiences and knowledge to inspire others. I am mainly spending my time on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter currently, as this is where I believe I can provide the most value.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I am currently working for AO.com as a principal developer and cloud architect across five exciting customer experience teams. These include the chatbot team, agent experience, my account, customer interactions and order management.
AO.com is an FTSE 250 online electrical retailer based in the UK, which has had massive growth year on year since being founded in 2000. The role encompasses defining the technical strategy and future architecture with the teams while supporting the day-to-day transition to our future goal.
Outside of work, my key passion is around serverless technologies, and evangelising them within the community through coaching, mentoring, and blogging.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
My ability to impact people's careers in the tech industry through continuous coaching and creating valuable content. There is no greater feeling than watching individuals and teams grow based partially on the support you give them.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
"What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do." - Tim Ferriss. As a natural introvert, I have had to portray being an extrovert when it has taken me out of my comfort zone, and this is typically the time I grow the most.
That also extends to regularly creating content in front of my peers in the industry without the fear of being judged. As Jeff Bezos puts it nicely, "If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting".
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
Seeing people grow through inspiring and supporting them.
The only way for me to do this is to constantly grow my own knowledge and experience and then to effectively evangelise it through various channels. That is the core to being an effective principal developer and tech leader, in my opinion. So, constant personal growth is always at the forefront of my mind.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
Raising two fearless, compassionate and happy girls alongside my wife.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
I have found many people are cautious about reaching out to potential mentors and industry thought leaders. Still, in reality, these people are not sitting in ivory towers and typically appreciate the connection and reaching out in my experience.
This has allowed me to build up a large network of like-minded people with who I regularly have virtual coffees, where we discuss the latest changes in the industry. This has also opened up opportunities that I would never previously have had. Also, be a person of value, give back to your community, and you will make invaluable relationships.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
The personal qualities that I believe have helped me most in my career are kindness, compassion and staying humble. They are the fundamentals of success, in my opinion. Over many years I have also learned to listen to others to understand, as opposed to listening just to reply. This one skill is a game-changer.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
Nothing is final, whether that is success or failure.
Life to me is constant improvement and personal development day to day, with my only comparison being to myself the previous day. I personally embrace failure, as this is where I learn the most. If you are not failing, then you are not growing.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
Within creative circles, I have an affinity to both Jay Shetty and Gary Vaynerchuk and regularly consume their content. Finally, from a business perspective, I am fascinated with the careers and work of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I find the best way to relax outside of work is to spend time with my family, either paddle boarding, kayaking, long walks in the country or eating out. But, of course, I also walk five miles a day listening to podcasts, ranging anywhere from 'Serverless Chats' to 'On Purpose with Jay Shetty'.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
I have taken the pandemic and worked fully remote to realign my life for growth, with dedicated time for learning and passing certifications, reading a few key books per week, blogging regularly, attending webinars, networking, and creating an online course.
The downside of this, in all honesty, has been periods of burning the candle at both ends, with less time for exercise and downtime. I have so much that I want to achieve in life, but the biggest learnings have been more time for self-care, the balance between career development and health, and you can't always achieve everything at the same time. Be patient.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I am currently mentoring people in my own time, which gives me immense pleasure; supporting people and helping them grow based on my own experiences with failures and successes. I am also almost finished a course I am giving away for free to the wider tech community called 'Enterprise Serverless' so I can help as many people as possible in the most efficient way.
I have various mentors through the medium of books, some of which have been written by the likes of Robert T. Kiyosaki, Jay Samit, Stephen Covey, and Dale Carnegie (to name a few). This is because the process of learning from others through books is so powerful.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
When it comes to Serverless in the tech industry, there is a huge community that is welcoming to newcomers, and you just need to throw yourself into it. Get an AWS free tier account and start building and learning in your own time. The fundamental beauty of this industry is you can learn and progress for free, and there are no prerequisites, so there are therefore no excuses. If you don't know where to start, reach out to me personally.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Lack of support and not seeing immediate progress.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"Memento Mori", which is Latin for "Remember that you have to die". This is something that motivates me daily, rather than something which has a negative impact on my mindset.
We are only here for a relatively short time, so I like to make the most of it and don't want to look back thinking, "what if?".
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Apple, Netflix, Amazon and Tesla. I would love to work for one of these within my future career.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success to me is supporting others in being successful. Success is also having the confidence that you're giving your all and seeing the true tangible value that it generates.