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MPC Assessment: How to Tell if a Candidate Is Actually Most Placeable

An MPC assessment is the ten-minute check that decides whether a candidate is worth a campaign. Six questions, each a yes or a no. Six yeses and you run it. Two or more noes and you don't, no matter how much you like the person.

JD Julian D'Angelo Sep 10, 2026 9 min read

What an MPC assessment is, and why you need one

MPC stands for Most Placeable Candidate, and "placeable" is the word that matters. An MPC campaign pitches one candidate to 20 to 50 hiring managers. If that candidate turns out to be unavailable, or impossible to get on the phone, you've spent your credibility with 50 people you wanted as clients.

The assessment exists to stop that. It's a checklist, not a feeling. Recruiters are good at liking candidates and bad at predicting who will actually get placed, because the two things feel identical from the inside. The checklist forces the question that matters. Will a hiring manager take a meeting for this person, and will this person show up to it?

Run it before every campaign. Re-run it every two weeks the candidate stays on the desk, because the answers decay. Someone who was available and keen on the first of the month often isn't by the fifteenth.

The six MPC checks

Six questions. Answer each one yes or no, honestly. Under each is what a yes actually looks like. Six yeses, run the campaign. One no, fix it first. Two or more, nurture the candidate and pick someone else.

1. In-demand skill set

Does the market you sell into struggle to fill roles like this one? Not "is this a good skill" but "do hiring managers in my patch lose sleep over this vacancy."

What a yes looks like:

  • Yes: roles like this sit open 60+ days in your market and you can name five companies hiring for it now.
  • No: roles fill themselves from the applicant pool.

2. Quantified proof

Can you state the candidate's headline achievement in one sentence with a number in it? "Cut month-end close from ten days to four." "Grew the territory 40% in year one." This becomes the subject line of every MPC email, so if it doesn't exist, the campaign has no opening line.

What a yes looks like:

  • Yes: two or more numbers a hiring manager would repeat to their boss.
  • No: a list of responsibilities. No numbers on the resume is not a zero. Interview the candidate until you find them.

3. Genuine availability

Available now or on short notice, and actually committed to moving. The most common MPC failure is pitching someone who declines every intro because they were "just curious." Ask directly. If I get you a conversation next week with a company you like, will you take it?

What a yes looks like:

  • Yes: available within four weeks, has told you they will interview, and has a reason to move you can articulate.
  • No: exploring.

4. Responsiveness

How fast does this person get back to you? An MPC campaign puts a hiring manager on a clock. They reply, and you need the candidate on a call within a day or two. A candidate who takes four days to answer a text will lose that meeting, and you'll be the one apologizing. How they treat you now is how they'll treat the client.

What a yes looks like:

  • Yes: replies same day, has agreed to be marketed anonymously, and has told you how to reach them fast.
  • No: you've had to follow up twice on anything.

5. Interview-ready

Will this person hold up in the room you're about to open for them? Communication, presentation, the ability to tell their own story with the numbers you found. You're putting your name on the intro.

What a yes looks like:

  • Yes: you've interviewed them for 30+ minutes, they told the headline story unprompted and clearly, and references check.
  • No: you haven't spoken to them properly.

6. Market depth

Are there enough target companies to make a campaign? An MPC campaign needs 20 to 50 hiring managers who employ people like this candidate and show a reason to need one, like a related posting, department growth or a recent departure. If you can only name six companies, it's a referral, not a campaign.

What a yes looks like:

  • Yes: 40+ target companies with a visible hiring signal.
  • No: under 10.
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The eight questions that answer the six checks

You can't answer most of the six off a resume. Book 30 minutes with the candidate and ask these, in this order. The answers give you the numbers for the pitch and the honesty for the checklist.

  1. What's the one thing you did in your current role that your boss would brag about? (Proof.)
  2. Put a number on it. What was it before, what was it after, how long did it take? (Proof.)
  3. Why are you looking now, and what would make you stay? (Availability, motivation.)
  4. If I got you a conversation next week with a company you liked, would you take it? (Availability.)
  5. What's your notice period, and is there anything that would delay a start? (Availability.)
  6. If a hiring manager wants to talk Thursday, how quickly can you confirm, and what's the best way to reach you? (Responsiveness.)
  7. Walk me through your last role like I'm the hiring manager. (Interview-ready.)
  8. Which companies would you love to work for, and which would you never join? (Market depth, and it seeds the target list.)

Two candidates, checked

Same desk, same week, same finance market. This is why the checklist beats the gut.

Candidate A: the one you like

Controller, twelve years, warm and impressive on the phone. In-demand skill set: yes, controllers are scarce in your market. Quantified proof: no, the resume is responsibilities and you haven't dug for numbers yet. Genuine availability: no, open to the right thing but no timeline. Responsiveness: no, took three days to send the resume. Interview-ready: yes. Market depth: yes.

Three yes, three no. Don't run it. Two interviews to find the numbers and a clear agreement on how fast they'll turn things around might flip two of those. If they do, this is a great campaign. If they don't, it was always going to fail.

Candidate B: the one you almost skipped

Senior accountant, six years, quiet on the phone. In-demand skill set: yes. Quantified proof: yes, zero audit adjustments two years running, built the close checklist the whole team uses, cut the close by three days. Genuine availability: yes, four weeks, has a reason to move, said yes to interviews. Responsiveness: yes, answers within the hour. Interview-ready: yes. Market depth: yes, 30 target companies.

Six yes. Run it this week. The subject line writes itself, and the manager gets a candidate who'll show up.

What to do with the answers

The bar is deliberately strict. A campaign costs two weeks of your credibility with 50 hiring managers. Spend it on the right person.

  • Six yes: run the campaign. Write the one-pager, build the list, and send. Re-check every two weeks while the candidate is live.
  • One no: fix it first. Almost always it's proof. Interview for the numbers. Give yourself one week. If it doesn't flip to a yes, don't run.
  • Two or more noes: don't run it. Put the candidate into a nurture track and pick someone else. A no here is not a judgment on the person. It's a judgment on the timing.
  • A no on availability or responsiveness is a stop on its own. Those two sink a campaign regardless of how strong the rest is.

One more use for the checklist. It tells you who to run first. If you have four candidates at six yeses, run the one with the biggest number in their headline win, because the bench you show hiring managers is the brand you're building.

FAQ

MPC assessment, answered

An MPC assessment is a checklist recruiters use to decide whether a candidate is a Most Placeable Candidate worth building a marketing campaign around. Six yes-or-no checks: in-demand skill set, quantified proof, genuine availability, responsiveness, interview readiness and market depth. Six yeses means run the campaign.

Six. An in-demand skill set your market struggles to fill, a quantifiable headline achievement, genuine availability within four to eight weeks, same-day responsiveness to the recruiter, the communication skills to hold up in interview, and enough target companies (20 to 50) to make a campaign.

All six. With one no, fix it first, usually by interviewing for the numbers. With two or more, nurture the candidate and choose someone else. A no on availability or responsiveness stops the campaign on its own.

Yes, if they pass the six checks. Placeable is about demand, proof, availability and fit, not seniority. A senior accountant with zero audit adjustments two years running, available in four weeks and answering your texts within the hour, will outscore a controller with no numbers who takes three days to reply.

Interview for them. Ask what their boss would brag about, then ask for the before, the after, and how long it took. Almost every strong candidate has a number they never wrote down. No numbers on the resume is not a no on proof until you have had that conversation.

Every two weeks while the candidate is on the desk. Availability and motivation both decay. A candidate who was available and keen on the first of the month is often neither by the fifteenth, and the campaign should stop the day that happens.

Screening asks whether a candidate fits a role a client has already opened. An MPC assessment asks whether a candidate is strong enough to open roles that do not exist yet, by being pitched to 20 to 50 hiring managers. It weighs market depth, quantified proof and responsiveness far more heavily than a screen does.

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