It very much depends on the company. In Virgin, applicants are filtered by both pilots and experienced flight ops personnel, not Human Resources. Obviously, we aren't looking for low-houred pilots, but we do tend to look at an applicant 'in the round'. Experience outside the flight deck may well be useful, and may add to an individual's attraction, but flying experience is by far the most important single criterion.
The fact is that it doesn't matter how good you were as an engineer, salesman, business executive, or anything else; you are applying for a job as a pilot. Piloting is essentially a manual skill that improves only with experience, and isn't significantly improved by other experiences. Equally, as a junior co-pilot you can't influence the company's business except by being at work when you're needed, and flying your roster. You will not have an input into how the company runs its affairs, so any experience you have in that department is fairly irrelevent.
So, I'm sorry, but hours and experience are fundamentally what it's all about, coupled with the ability to give a decent amount of years to the company. On that note, one of the advantages older guys have with commuter and freight airlines is that they're less likely to disappear off to a shiny scheduled airline than the young guy who wants to be a B744 or A380 captain, and so that's where I'd put most of my efforts if I were in that position.
Scroggs