Foreign Service Officer and Director at the National Security Council
POLICY/ GOVERNMENT
6/1/20231 min read
We discuss:
0:40: Why he wanted to become a foreign service officer
3:00: The steps required to become a foreign service officer
6:36: Career options within foreign service
7:29: Why he chose to be on the political side of foreign service out of all of the options
7:53: Misconceptions about diplomacy
10:13: An overview of his role
13:14 What determines the length, location, and job function of different assignments
15:33: Different types of assignments
16:56: What training entails
18:57: What the team hierarchy looks like
24:20: Opportunities for moving up
26:23: Typical roles and responsibilities
30:49: Typical hours
35:24: How long people usually stay in the role
37:58: Advice
In this interview, Matt Petit describes his career path and role as a Foreign Service Officer and the Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. He joined the foreign service in 2008 and has worked as a vice consul in India, as a desk officer in Somalia and Eritrea, and as the Deputy Chief of Political and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Zambia. Matt speaks Persian, Spanish, and some Russian, Armenian, Tamil, German, and French.