I'll admit it up front. I'm old school. I don't think HR has any business being involved in hiring pilots. What does a latte drinking, manicured, curly haired, big smile, perfect teeth and high pitched voiced, 20 something lady know about picking pilots? We (pilots) should be the only ones involved in picking other pilots that we are going to have to sit next two for days on end for the next 20 years.
Times change. My generation couldn't get a phone call without knowing somebody and then you had to prove that you were capable of a lunar landing on your NASA sim ride.
Today's generation has to show "community service". Nothing wrong with community service, except a guy with a wife and maybe a kid or two, earning $20,000 to $30,000 a year at some piece of work regional has got no time to go out and do community service. But... they do because the know it's part of the test now. Go find a soup kitchen, give them an afternoon, put it on your application and be done with it. Dumb... but no different then my generation that all went out and got our FE ticket, just because everybody else did it and we had to be competitive.
Play the game. Get the job. It's a very dumb process to have to endure, but the job is worth it.