I've never been convicted of a crime, but have friends who have, and while I haven't dug into their career issues, my understanding is that none of them have been prevented from working in technology as a result of background checks.

I think your felony conviction isn't your worst problem. Your worst problem is that you're trying to get jobs in Orlando and using recruiters to do it. Both of these are bad strategies. Working with recruiters is the bigger mistake.

It is almost certainly not true that recruiters maintain an "oligarchy" over tech jobs in Orlando. All things being equal, hiring managers would rather not rely on recruiters to fill positions, because recruiters are very expensive. It may be the case that it's hard to get a job from online job ads in Orlando without working with recruiters, but job ads are not the best way to find jobs anyways.

Here are some thoughts (grain of salt; I'm not you, and you know more about your situation than I do):

1. You're in the hottest market for tech talent that I've seen in my whole career. That could change tomorrow, and eventually, after some number of "tomorrows", will change. When that happens, your criminal record could suddenly become a much bigger problem than it is now. So I'd move quickly to find a full-time role and to start establishing a career track record. The longer you maintain full-time employment with established firms, the less relevant your background becomes.

2. I urge you to cast a wider net than Orlando. You don't necessarily have to move to get a job that isn't based out of central Florida. But you're also quite young; if you don't have a very good reason to stay there, consider finding a job in a larger metro area --- Austin, Atlanta, DC --- and moving for awhile. I left Chicago for SF early in my career and eventually moved back, and while I don't love SF, I'm glad for the experience of trying it out.

3. Stop working through recruiters. Recruiters are bad news for developers even without a criminal record. But when you understand how most recruiters work, transactionally, like real estate agents, you can see that any potential obstacle to placing you is going to make you disproportionately less lucrative in their business model.

4. I think you'll find that most software companies aren't particularly rigorous with background checks. If you're not trying to land a role where a CFAA conviction is relevant, I don't think you're obligated to bring your background up.

5. The best way to find a company that hires directly is to simply assume that they will all hire directly, if you find the right person to talk to. Two things you can do right away: first, make a list of tech companies in your region and start finding people you can grab coffee with, and second, start showing up at meetups and asking people about their jobs, what they're working on, and what they like about the jobs. One thing you're going to find out quickly is that employees in tech shops are usually incentivized to help recruit people. By talking to them about working at their company, you're often doing them a favor, by setting them up to collect 4-5 figure bonuses.

So: Act as if your conviction is not a problem. Start looking outside Orlando, which might be problematic even for developers without criminal records. Stop trying to work through recruiters. Assume every company hires directly. Make a list of companies you might want to work for in your area and start finding people who work there to talk to. Show up at meetups and make conversation with people about their jobs, and see where things go from there.

There are going to be jobs where a criminal conviction is a roadblock (unfortunately, many jobs in my field are like that; consulting clients, for instance, all tend to background check consultants; another place you'll have trouble is finance). But my guess is that the majority of dev jobs are not like that.