You can fake a bit. Call someone in the company that's not in HR. When you apply, you refer to or CC that person. Now the HR employee sees that CC and thinks "I

You can fake a bit. Call someone in the company that's not in HR. When you apply, you refer to or CC that person. Now the HR employee sees that CC and thinks "If I ignore this application someone inside the company might ask about it". HR doesn't know that there's no real connection, but they know that they might have to justify​ your rejection and so now they're reading your application properly.