AUSA 2026
Been a minute since I last checked in to what’s become my virtual diary. Not much has happened. Only became a co-owner in my first real estate property ever. A charming 900 square foot, canal-view condo that has the “vibes of Melrose Place” according to my boyfriend and real estate agent. A reference I’m either too young or not gay enough to understand. But it does have a lanai, which was a major selling point for us. Besides that, it’s been more of the same.
On the study front, September wasn’t the best. My sister and her family coming in from Israel for a few weeks, the Jewish holidays, and closing on the condo have all successfully made my lofty goals loftier. I studied and worked when I had the chance, but it’s the constant context switching from my routine which makes any real work challenging.
But I’m currently sitting on the train back from the 2026 AUSA Defense-Tech Conference in D.C. and wanted to jot down some thoughts on my past two days here. What I initially thought I was signing up for was an auditorium-sized event of adjacently aligned booths, some breakout sessions on the latest defense tech news, and lots of mingling and networking. How naive I was. Instead, what I walked into was floor after floor of football-field-sized halls filled with tanks, drones, and munitions of all kinds.
When I first walked in on day one of the event I was in disbelief. Perhaps I should’ve done more research or perhaps I read right over 50,000 without fully grasping the scale. But 50,000 people is a crap load of people. People in suits, people in uniform, people from all different countries. All here to show-off their latest technology and to network with peers.
And the venue is massive too. It’s only three floors but each floor spans multiple city blocks. Getting from one booth to another could take upwards of thirty minutes of awkwardly meandering through the exhibits, trying to find where you need to go, only to realize it’s actually on the other side. And while I did get much better at navigating the place on my second day, after two days and nearly 15 hours there I still couldn’t confidently tell you how to get from Point A to Point B.
And my final ‘complaint’ - the seating. There is absolutely nowhere to sit. So not only are you on your feet, in a suit walking all day, there’s also nowhere to just sit and relax for 10 minutes. With the abundance of uniforms and exhausted faces, one could easily mistake this event for basic training. I’m embarrassed to admit the number of times I used the bathroom stall as a way to just get off my feet and write notes in my notebook. I jokingly called it my office to someone there and he laughed and said “mine too”.
But despite what my last few paragraphs would make you think, I did in fact do some preparation. The night before, I (and ChatGPT) went through the list of 1000 attending companies and, taking into consideration my skillsets and desires, curated a list of relevant companies for me to visit. We put together a plan for me to spend my first day with companies on the bottom floor in halls A, B, and C, and day two with companies on the top floor in halls D and E.
Well, on the first day, as I’m walking through these grand exhibits of companies whose names I don’t recognize, the first company on my list I stumble on is none other than Anduril. I didn’t intend to make the hottest company in attendance my first visit, but I was already there so I figured I’d give it a shot. It wasn’t a bad conversation but it wasn’t impactful either. Their exhibit was swarmed, and in hindsight it would have been wise to do a few low-pressure run-throughs before this one. The guy I struck up a conversation with quickly caught on that I wasn’t a military vet interested in buying Anduril products and I quickly caught on that everyone at the booth was in sales. He was nice and he answered my questions but neither of us particularly enjoyed it. I thanked him for his time, and ended it how I ended every conversation the past two days, “Well thank you so much for your time, I would love to connect if you have a card or you’re on LinkedIn”. He was happy to oblige. So, yes, I’m now connected to 20-some salespeople across a variety of companies.
I’m not going to bore you with all my conversations because, unfortunately, many of them went the same way. A brief chat with a rep, typically in sales, asking about their shiny new edge compute, mesh networking, and drone swarm technology, before wrapping up by telling them I’m a software engineer looking to break in and thanking them for their time.
Even if AUSA is really built for procurement officers and sales teams rather than engineering recruiting, it wasn’t a bust. I did walk away with new connections and introductions into companies. Even if it’s just with someone on the business side of the organization, it’s still an “in”. More importantly, I walked away with a newfound curiosity and interest in edge computing and operating in environments where networks are unreliable. That’s definitely an area I want to explore more—it might even be the exact direction I need for my first project—and I’m happy this event took place right after I spent time studying AWS Snowball devices and edge computing more broadly. And finally, they really do put on quite a great production. It’s hard walking away from such a spectacle without feeling a sense of awe. I’m happy I went.
P.S. I now have a completely vacant “Projects” section on my website. It’s one of the reasons I hesitate to put this website on any job applications or my resume. I really do plan on leaning into that more after I pass this AWS exam. Currently learning about Active Directory, which, if you’re paying attention, yes, means I’m still on the on-prem/AWS section of the exam.