The new rock-star-media-mogul-big-swingers of the financial services industry are not investment bankers. They are not traders. They are not hedge fund managers.

They are change managers.

Since 2009, demand for people who can help banks get to grips with the changes they need to make to meet new regulatory demands has gone through the roof. Some of these ‘change managers’ are modest, salaried individuals. Others are superstars on massive day rates.

“Most people in change management prefer to work as contractors,” says Jodie Bowles, who leads the change management area at recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark. “There are a lot of senior change managers earning 1k a day, but at the top end daily rates can be even more.”

How can you become this person?

Not easily. Change managers are at the top of the project management hierarchy. You will not be able to become one straight out of university. Before you can be a change manager, you will typically need to have been a junior business analyst, a senior business analyst, a lead business analyst and a project or programme manager.

“Change management is very strategic,” explains Bowles. “It is not an entry-level position.”

However, you may be able to become a change manager with careful planning. We have it on good authority that there are several routes to change management riches. They include….

1) Becoming the SME person in your business area

In a change management context, ‘SME,’ doesn’t stand for, ‘Small or Medium Sized Enterprise.’ It means ‘Subject Matter Expert.’

SMEs are the people in the business who liaise with the project managers during the change management process to explain how the proposed changes will have an effect. Bowles says SMEs could be, for example, traders’ assistants, who help explain how a change to trading systems could impact the trade capture and booking process. From being the SME, you should be able to become a business analyst. From being a business analyst, you will be able to climb the change management hierarchy.

2) Becoming a business analyst with knowledge of the ‘lifecycle’ of the entire project

Charlie Noble, head of the change management team at recruiters Robert Walters, says there are a lot of individuals with a line/SME background who want to move into change management, but that banks don’t just want people with experience of business as usual. They want people who have, ‘end to end project lifecycle experience’ as well as SME knowledge.

Basically, have you initiated a project and seen it through? No? Bad luck.

3) Working in the programme office

The programme office is the administrative side of change management. It’s where all the many and various simultaneous change management projects are overseen and managed to ensure they don’t go over-budget or last for entire decades without bringing about any alterations at all.

This might sound a little boring, but Bowles assures us that it is possible to move into active change management from this place.

4) Working for the Big Four and the escape into glorious self-employment

Lots of investment banking change management roles are occupied by people who previously worked for the Big Four in a consultancy context but saw the light (or sniffed the money) and decided to go it alone.

Bowles says a background with the Big Four can be good, or can be bad. Some banks love it, some banks don’t. If you want to be in with a chance, you will need to have worked for the Big Four on consultancy roles in financial services. It will not help if you’ve worked as a consultant in a factory in Leeds.

5) Doing some qualifications

Several qualifications could help a quest to metamorphosize into change management material. Think Prince2. Think Six Sigma. Bowles says neither will do much good on their own and that Prince2 is probably more relevant to financial services than Six Sigma, but they will help you on your way.

If you want to be a ‘finance change manager’ as opposed to an ‘operational change manager’ she says it can also help to have an accounting qualification. Think CIMA. Think management accountancy with project management and change thrown in.