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For DARPA (and IARPA) projects it's usually large teams that get selected, generally a university or a large federal contractor--or sometimes consortia from sev

For DARPA (and IARPA) projects it's usually large teams that get selected, generally a university or a large federal contractor--or sometimes consortia from several such organizations. Unless you know how to make a tricorder, your chances of getting in are pretty slim unless you're a member of an organization like that. And that's fairer than it sounds, since usually DARPA-hard means lots of moving parts and therefore lots of experts on different topic areas on any given team, else the problem is hopeless.

ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
Defense contracting can be intimidating to get into, for sure. Like most professions, it's a universe unto itself, and there are meetups in larger cities around the topics (aerospace, for example) to make friends in the industry. As for the work itself, if you're interested in going into defense contracting, some online courses may be freely available to you at Defense Acquisition University, which educates on a lot of the policy and bureaucracy (hope you like acronyms).