Well to give you guys some idea, as far as I know, they only have 2 people in HR for controllers applying, 1 works part time and does experienced ATC's and the other person works full time and does ab initio.
As you can no doubt tell from the length of this thread, there are a lot of applicants, and not many people to process them. I myself applied Waaaaaay back in march, and only this week did I receive my formal offer (signed etc) thats a lot of time to screen, vet and assess someone that is already doing the job, but as I said there are only 2 people doing the job, and given they get somewhere in the vacinity of 4000 or so apps a year, testing interviews and finalising of contracts, job offers, travel and general liasing....well you can imagine that the HR ladies have their work cut out for them.
@kiwichick there is so much difference between flight data and controlling. previous aviation experience will help you immensely. knowledge of general aviation procedures, documents such as AIP, knowing acronyms etc just gives you that much more breathing room when you are learning to control, and people without that knowledge will struggle whilst learning what you already know, and at the same time trying to learn how to control at the same time.