My first ever airline interview was with Kendalls and I didn't get in.
The reason why in my opinion I didn't get a job offer, was because I didn't know how to answer the interview questions and I screwed the sim ride up. It took me a further 3 attempts to get into an airline. Just because you have the minium requirements or even 5 times their minium requirements doesn't mean you are a shoe in if you get offered an interview.
It took me 2 interviews to get a job with my current employer. The first time I screwed up the interview again, and a couple of years later had another go. The second time around I done a lot of preperation before the interview and the whole prosess was a breeze, hence I got a job. Prior preperation and having some idea of what to expect will always make the process easier.
The airline that I fly for has cadets and has done so for a long time and to be quite honest, the pilots who have come through the cadet program who now are Captains, are a lot easier to fly with than pilots who have been direct entry Captains or First Officers. They operate 100% by the SOPs, were as some of the direct entry pilots insist to operate sometimes against the SOPs for no obvious reason. I can now understand why airlines would prefer to employ cadets or low time pilots over high time pilots, especially if the high time pilots have come out of GA with no 2 crew experience. Trust me it can be hard to train an old dog new tricks, personality has a lot to do with it as well.
Who ever that idiot was who recons that all the cowboys come from the bush, pull your head in mate. There are a lot of ex bush pilots flying airliners around the world, and I'm one myself.