In finance, you need to have the best of the best…of the best. No questions asked.

When you’re employed in this fast-paced, intricate realm, you’re handling billions of dollars. Not only that, you’re touching people’s hard-earned money, much of which is their live savings that they would like to modestly expand to beat inflation. It’s an important responsibility to have.Remember, whether you’re at the bottom of the totem pole or you’re at the very top, you’re in some way or another influencing the direction of these clients’ funds.

With that out of the way, when you’re looking to hire the best talent for a company that wants the cream of the crop, you need to employ a series of measures to ensure you’re meeting that objective. Otherwise, you’ll have the wrong people employed making many mistakes.Here are five things every financial recruiter must do to hire the best talent:

1. Asking the Right Questions Right Away

The point of any interview is to get to know the candidate. The worst thing you can do is to allow them to pontificate on their history and deliver a 10-minute monologue. The best thing you can do is to present a series of questions with plenty of follow-ups.

Simply put: you should always ask an abundance of questions right away to get to know them.

Here are some questions that you should ask:

• What has been the greatest achievement of your life up to this point?
• What has been the biggest hurdle you’ve had to overcome?
• What motivates you to work hard all day every day?
• Have you been employed in other industries? If not finance, what else interests you?
• Are you active in sports?

If you’re stumped by the last question it’s because sports are competitive in nature, requires teamwork and you’re rewarded for hard work. If you’re avid in sports you’re a good candidate.

2. Find Out What Financial Instruments They Use or Know

When you’re employed in the finance industry, there will be a wide variety of tools that you will use on a daily basis. No, you just won’t be utilizing Microsoft Excel and a calculator.

Everything from perusing financial reports to the Bloomberg Terminal, every single worker in this industry will come across many different tools each week. It’s your job to use them well.

3. Determine What Their Job Search Has Been Like

If this has been their 23^rd job interview in the last three months then it’s important to understand why. If you can gather a summary of what their job search has been like then you can garner a greater picture of the applicant.

Why are businesses passing on this person? What is he doing wrong? Is there something wrong with her resume, social media (see below) or credentials? These are distinctions to make.

4. What is Their Career Objective?

By attempting to find out what their career objective is, you can then proceed to either add their name to approved pile or the rejected pile.

If their career objective is to move on up in this industry then they may have the desire to survive and thrive in the cut-throat niche. On the other hand, if they view an employment position in finance as just another job then they’re not necessarily a good fit as they may abandon the cause once they get into a bit of trouble.

5. Navigate Their Social Media History

Studies have found that most financial recruiters now incorporate a candidate’s social media history into their duties. You can learn a lot about an applicant’s career and history by perusing their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram – even about their overall connections.

Indeed, should the candidate have questionable material on their networks then pass.

It is true that financial recruiters have a difficult job. Not only must they go through the immense piles of applications, they must also interview these candidates dozens of times a day. It isn’t always easy to deduce if one applicant is better than the other. It truly is hard work.

That said, with the aforementioned advice, you can make your navigation a lot simpler.