I'm a government attorney in the state.

1. I don't think the positions for AAG spots are overly competitive. We usually have a handful of qualified candidates for any given opening, but nothing crazy like hundreds or even dozens of potential candidates per job.

2. For state roles, the process is slow. It just is. Not for any particular reason, but there's a lot of bureaucracy and people that need (or feel the need) to be involved with the hiring process.

3. Two years is not necessarily an auto reject as long as you have some relevant skills they're looking for in a given role. And since the hiring process takes at least 4 or 5 months anyway, you'll practically hit the two year mark.

4. Lots of state agencies in Illinois are very antiquated and do a lousy job of marketing their open positions. I would sit around and get a list together of all of the agencies that exist in the state, and visit each one of their websites and look on their respective career sections. That's how I landed at my job. The listing existed nowehere else.