I've just been pondering this "glass ceiling" problem myself, and don't see an obvious way through it. I have about 3000 hours total, including 2500 turbo-prop commercial operations.
On the occasions that I get replies from the various companies that I send CVs to, I am told that I don't meet their minimum requirements of X, Y and Z, one which is usually a minimum hours limit, which I usually exceed by a factor of 2. The one I sometimes don't meet is a minimum aircraft (not me) weight reuirement.
The only route seems to be a bit sideways: the likes of Netjets. I am led to believe that operators of big jets consider Lear Jets amd Cessna Citations as General Aviation types and not proper jets. So where would that leave me for the future? Well, a bit better off perhaps, but only in cash terms, perhaps not in career terms.
The pilot market is the classic free market economy, and at the moment it is an employers market and will be for a while longer. The crunch for the employers, such as Easy Jet, will come when volunteers for the £25k joining fee are not so forthcoming, and they then have to justify to those who have paid up why the new boys don't. In the mean time, the bottom line counts big time. There is no altruism in pilot employment. If Easy Jet, or any other subsciption training provider, can sign someone up, they will as long as the bottom line is met. British pilots will see no loyalty from British airlines.