Jim's advice is solid.
I've got a few cents to add.
The recruitment process is changing. It is no longer 'here's the minimum requirements, if you meet them you'll get a job.' But on the minimum requirements topic....
Coop - in about 2007, when times were good and everyone was moving through their little part of aviation, Skytrans minimum requirements were 2500 hours just to get a job flying a 310 out of Cairns, because it was a multi-job not stuck in some
hole like Horn island or Kunners or TFC (Tennant F'ing Creek). Virgin and QF at the time had a minimum of 500 hours multi-command and a few other bits and pieces. Now, that's not to say the rare person got in with that, but I can assure you most of Cairns that got a job at the time had over 3000 hours with a hell of a lot more than 500 multi. Minimum requirements are just that. Minimum. Why don't they just raise the minimum they expect people to have you ask? Because it's their train set and that's how they want to play with it.
I personally know an AME for QF with more flying than you who has been rejected from a couple of cadetships too. I assure you his cover letter, resume and qualifications didn't just meet the minimum but smashed them. He is a well rounded individual who any airline would be lucky to have (IMHO) and is modest (yes this is something we look at). Did he get on a forum to complain about being rejected from not one, but two cadetships? No, he's up at old Taity's on the coast smashing out CPL subjects like a lord! He sold up everything he owns and is determined to get a job the good old fashioned way.
The key words to the last paragraph here are 'well rounded.' The people who are lucky enough to get these cadetships (not something that was around when I started) don't just meet the minimum requirements, they generally have been in the industry in some form or another. They have uni qualifications too - heck, half the industry has some useless bit of paper gathering dust that plays no benefit to their actual job. They do check-in, chuck bags, or whatever just to get the experience in the industry they want to be in the rest of their career.
Equality. 40% of the QF group Chief pilot's are female. If you knew either of them, you'd know they both earned their position through hard work. Both of them have been in the industry long enough that trying to 'even the numbers' didn't exist and thus reflects their efforts more.
We all try and do our best, that's all you can ask for. Perhaps the question the OP should've asked wasn't what he had to get rejected, but what the successful candidates did have to get such a meritorious position. I know a couple of cadets who both gladly offer their time to discuss this with anyone who asks.
If you get rejected, reapply. It's called tenacity.
RC