How does one become an SEC Commissioner? On his CorporateAffairs.tv YouTube channel, Broc Romanek does a nice job of answering that question. In short, Broc explains in a video (see below), there are 5 steps:

1. Know the Right People

2. Be the Right Political Party

3. Have the Right Luck

4. Have a Good Interview; and

5. Have the Right Experience

Increasingly, as laid out by Floyd Norris of the NYT in this article from August 2013, the first step noted by Broc is even more specific: know the right senior senators in the majority party of Congress. For instance, Norris noted, while the two most recently-added commissioners (Republican Michael S. Piwowar, and Democrat Kara M. Stein) were both nominated by President Obama, "the reality appears to be that he did not really choose them." Rather,

they were effectively chosen by senior senators. Both the Republican, Michael S. Piwowar, and the Democrat, Kara M. Stein, were aides on the Senate Banking Committee. It appears that their former bosses, Senator Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the committee, and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the former chairman of the Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment, were instrumental in their selection.

Check out the video below for Broc Romanek's "5 Steps to Becoming a SEC Commissioner."