I have a few friends that forwarded my resume to hiring managers. I have 8 years of ATC military experience and I was surprised at how little the FAA was interested in me. Not trying to be conceited, but I do have the experience. The most I got was a supervisor that liked my resume Call me. He basically told me to hold tight as he didn't actually hire people. All of my FAA friends said the system was broken and they had no advice.
One issue I had was that thre of the jobs I applied for were listed as needing help in Aviator, but the hiring manager confirmed it was wrong and they had not positions. When I asked HR how I could get my application to a different area, I was told that wasn't possible. Wish I didn't waste the three locations I didn't know about.