It's all very well meeting all the other standards etc etc but the recruitment right now is for 787 rated people. At the same time the company are still using all their training capacity converting existing VAA employees. People who look like good prospects but aren't 787 rated will be kept on file (or pool) to meet expected shortfalls on other types later in the year.
Given that there is an internal waiting list, they're not going to bother recruiting new non-rated people to jump the queue.