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Ali Winston
Talent Strategy + Operations | Design Recruiting | Mentorship
Ali Winston is a recruiter with experience at Pinterest and VSCO, known for being an aesthetic enthusiast, over-analyzer, over-apologizer, and over-excited individual.
Ali studied Media Studies and Business for their BA at the University of San Francisco, certified in User Experience Design from General Assembly, and also studied Communications at New York University.
Ali has worked in various roles at organizations like Anthropic, adplist.org, Bain Capital Ventures, Pinterest, VSCO®, and BINC in talent consulting, mentorship, recruiting, design, people operations, and photography.
With a diverse background and a passion for aesthetics, Ali Winston brings a unique perspective and skill set to the recruiting industry.
Highlights
In December, my role at BCV was eliminated. I am so very grateful for the rapid fire learning I experienced and the truly epic talent I was surrounded by in my time there. On the other side of the mental rollercoaster that follows these paradigm-shifting moments, a few learnings big and small:
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These things happen to everyone. When I shared my news with my community, I was genuinely surprised when most of them shared their own story in return. Their willingness to be vulnerable made me feel less alone, and showed me how resilient people are. We would all be better served by openly sharing our most challenging moments, and maybe more importantly, hearing them from our leaders.
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Your career, and your life, are not linear. If they are, you probably aren't taking enough risks or following your heart, soul, mind, gut... whatever name you assign to your inner compass. As a habitual comfort-seeking, do-the-"right"-thing kind of human, I've often stifled the little messages coming from this place, and those coming from the people who know and love me best. If you ignore them for long enough, life will likely stop giving you a choice.
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You are not your work. Maybe Linkedin is not the right place for this message, but it's true no matter where it's said. As someone who hasn't been without a job in 12 years (but also considers themself to be pretty self-reflective), I'm embarrassed by how hard it has been for me to acknowledge and articulate my value outside of what I do. I'm looking forward to changing that.
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The people really do make the place. This could not be more true of the Talent team at BCV. Here's looking at you Reginald J. Williams William Eleazer Miranda Cornejo Emily Yousef Megan Panzer Kageleiry Laura Hilton Leslie Crowe Sophia (Yamauchi) Schwanke Neva Davidson
As for now, I'm taking a little time to take care of my body, listen, and learn some new things after a 12-year marathon (and acknowledge that I am incredibly fortunate to be able to do so). Shout out to my absolute legend of a cheerleader Felix Desroches for not just being unfazed by this, but insisting on it. I've also started mentoring job seekers through ADPList and have already had some incredibly enriching conversations. What an absolute joy it is to connect with other humans purely from a place of curiosity and desire to help.
To anyone out there in my network that is going through something similar, and I know there are many, I'm always here to talk things through ❤️ .
