Shelli DeLisle

“Quality and integrity are everything to me.”

Shelli DeLisle has helped bring roughly 140 people into Commonwealth Associates this year, and treats every one of those hires as a decision that will shape someone's life. As Head of Talent Acquisition at the power and utility engineering firm, Shelli leads a growing recruiting team in a business where, as Shelli puts it, work cannot be billed until the right people are in place.

That dual conviction, that recruiting is both the engine of a business and one of the most personal things one professional can do for another, organizes a career that has moved through commercial construction, advertising, and executive science recruiting. It is also why Shelli bristles at any notion of simply filling seats. "Quality and integrity are everything to me," Shelli says, and the record backs it up.

Learning the Business First

Shelli trained in graphic design and art history and spent years working at a family interior design firm before deciding the work needed to make a bigger difference in the world. A friend who had built a successful recruiting career made the path look possible, so Shelli went looking for recruiter roles and landed at a staffing agency placing professionals in commercial construction. Shelli knew nothing about recruiting and nothing about the industry, and dove in anyway.

The habit formed in those early days still defines the work: become knowledgeable enough to be dangerous. Shelli asked clients to explain what they did and, more importantly, what business problems they were trying to solve. Shelli also decided early what kind of recruiter to be, choosing integrity over the quick dollar and building three or four clients into deep, repeat relationships.

The pull back toward creative work led to Aquent, a staffing firm focused on advertising, where Shelli placed graphic designers and early digital marketing talent for about four years. It felt like marrying two passions. When a client offered a move in house, Shelli took it, wanting to stop feeling disconnected from the business and instead play chess with skill gaps and resourcing from the inside. Shelli has been client side ever since.

Three Hundred Hires in Detroit

Shelli spent roughly 16 to 17 years recruiting in advertising, and found a second niche there: building agencies almost from scratch when major accounts changed hands. The defining example came when Dentsu won the General Motors business, a billion-dollar global account. Shelli was the first of four people on the ground in Detroit, and within about three months the team had hired more than 300 people.

Shelli often made offers on the spot after interviews, and remembers countless tears and hugs. Speed never displaced standards, though. Retention from that build ran above 90 percent, and many of those hires stayed with the agency for years. Twelve or thirteen years later, Shelli still counts it among the proudest accomplishments of a long career.

A Guardian of Culture

At Commonwealth, Shelli insists recruiters are partners in the hiring decision, not order takers, and none on the team are allowed to be. Shelli describes the role as guardian of culture and fit, leaving technical judgment to the hiring teams. When the CEO recently passed along a candidate who was technically outstanding but carried too much ego, Shelli said so plainly. The response: "Say less."

That trust comes from explaining the reasoning every time. Shelli handles forecasting and higher level planning, and regularly pushes hiring managers who stall over a missing qualification by reminding them that someone once taught them, too. Everyone has gaps, and the job is to set new hires up to feel successful while they grow. Shelli admits to being nosy about how past hires are doing, and calls watching them thrive supremely satisfying. The standard for the team itself is simple: smart, driven, and kind.

Vicky's Fingerprints

Relationships have shaped every turn. Colleagues from advertising, including partners in HR, became lifelong friends, and some of Shelli's closest friends are candidates Shelli once hired. A move into executive recruiting at Amazon Science, a field Shelli had to learn from the ground up, came through a friendship with a candidate's spouse who recruited executives there.

When Shelli chose not to relocate to Seattle and left Amazon, a former boss and longtime mentor heard the news and called. Vicky Kruslemsky, a senior executive at Commonwealth, explained that the firm had no recruiting strategy and wanted to grow. Shelli protested about not knowing electrical engineering but signed on as a contractor anyway, out of deep loyalty to Vicky. Two months in, Shelli called to say, "Vicky, I'm never leaving."

The kindness and partnership at Commonwealth felt like the culmination of everything Shelli had looked for, and Shelli could see Vicky's fingerprints all over it. The lesson Shelli carries most is one of Vicky's sayings: assume the best intentions in people, because whether or not it turns out to be true, it defuses how you feel. Shelli's children know it by heart.

Practical About AI

Shelli sees AI as a powerful new tool with good and bad sides, much like any transformative technology. Fraudulent candidates are a growing problem, so Shelli built an AI agent that scores questionable applicants and signals when to be cautious. Applications themselves are still reviewed by people, because a tool will not know the business the way the team does, though Shelli expects that could change.

The biggest gains are in the unglamorous work. AI note taking and drafting of the detailed candidate dossiers Shelli's team writes saves about an hour per candidate. The team also uses it to write personalized interview questions for the prep sessions held before every interview, and Shelli leans on it for Excel formulas, presentations, and data work. Not every tool earns a place: automated candidate emails felt impersonal and unlike Shelli. Still, Shelli stays open to being wrong and is weighing whether new tools could cover sourcing as the team grows.

Advice for Recruiters

Shelli's guidance is grounded in decades of practice. Learn enough about the business to be dangerous, and always explain your reasoning, because that is how recruiters earn a seat in the hiring decision. Keep AI simple and start with everyday tasks rather than being intimidated by its scale. Above all, remember that a career is a big deal to the person living it, and that putting the right people in the right roles is a way of giving them joy.