Fogrunner. Does your buddy have PIC time experience in an airline ? Does he have a degree ?
They are looking for PIC experience in any kind of airplane (of cours jet is better).
If your friend could get that experience I am sure he would go up the list very quickly.
If he does have this experience then don't tell me there's not something wrong in the selection process.
The problem is, you can be down the list because of a stupid item, but of course you don't know about it so how can you improve ?