From Ecstasy to Frustration in Fell One Sentence

Still looking for work. It's hard not to be discouraged some days. This is one of them.

Today I got the results of the library assistant exam I took last week. There were 89 questions.

I got pretty excited when I read "Congratulations on passing with a score of 89". Then I read the next sentence:

"Your rank on the eligibility list is 12."

You might be asking yourself how I could get every question correct and still be 12th on the eligibility list. Well, I'm not a veteran, I'm not a woman, and I'm not a minority. The City of Tacoma is required to give you extra points on the exam if you happen to be any of those.

Twelfth place is apparently as high as I could possibly get.

Now, they'll be calling in the top three candidates for each position, of which there are between one and four openings.

That means that even though I got the highest score I could possibly get, I will not be called in to interview unless there are four openings.

Given what I know of Tacoma's library budget issues, fat chance.