Hi
No matter who you work for, there will always be stories from the grapevine about people using unorthodox means to get into a company. It is difficult to say whether there is any truth in claims that candidates from affluent backgrounds are given preferential treatment bit if it does, it probably very rarely happens.
I highly doubt that a JFO would have the clout to influence or even manipulate the flight crew recruitment team's decision to allow a JFO's friend in to the cadet scheme. What may have happened is that the JFO was providing a legitimate personal reference to flight crew recruitment, who was following standard procedures as part of the application process.
Many organisations worldwide, from department stores to airlines, will ask if you know somebody who works within their organisation. If they do not ask this question on the application form, they will certainly ask it during the interview. The aim here is to avoid a situation where relatives work under common direct supervision.
Asian business culture places a lot of emphasis on guanxi but if a candidate was desperately hopeless, flight crew recruitment will not approach the candidate's friends within Cathay to seek their approval of accepting this candidate. Moreover, the onus would be on the friend to approach flight crew recruitment to pursuade them to accept this candidate.
Cathay has not been able to recruit enough cadets to meet its target for quite some years so if they see suitable applicants, they will take them in regardless of their irrelevant characteristics.
The bottom line is that Cathay will not hire cadets whom they think are substandard. They will not sacrifice safety and reputation just to do somebody a favor. Also, this will certainly impact on management's relationship with incumbent pilots.
All I can suggest is like what everybody else is saying - to try again and never give up
. Successful cadets from programs run by other airlines sometimes get in on subsequent attempts and all you need to do is improve on what you have done last time.
Bonne chance!
