Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Career
From the pit to promotions: four timeless lessons for the wilderness between jobs
Welcome to part 3 of a series exploring what some ancient myths have to say about professional transitions. Here’s where we’ve been so far if you want to get caught up:
I Lost My Job. Now What?
Career Disruption & the Middle Way
Losing your job is hard.
But what if this hardship is how you will discover your greater purpose?
What if this loss is the gateway to leveling up in your career?
There’s an ancient myth that holds great wisdom about how to navigate the terrain between jobs so that we can access the unexpected gifts that this season of the unknown holds for us.
It’s the biblical story of Joseph.
But before we get into what this legend means for us, let’s hear it again.
Joseph’s Resume
Joseph had a good gig.
He was his father’s favorite and he had an ornate robe (read: amazing technicolor dreamcoat) to show for it. He also was a dreamer, and he didn’t hesitate to share his dreams with his eleven brothers. For some reason, every dream had the same theme: eleven things bowing to one thing (Hmm, I wonder which of the brothers the one thing symbolized). Needless to say, Joseph’s brothers weren’t too wild about him. So they sold him into slavery and told their father Jacob, “Some ferocious animal has devoured him.” As you can imagine, it broke Jacob’s heart.
Meanwhile, the not-actually-dead Joseph was trafficked down to Egypt where he was sold to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials. Joseph was sharp, so Potiphar put him in charge of his household. He was also “well-built and handsome,” which got the attention of Potiphar’s wife. She came after him. He respectfully declined. Which pissed her off. So she falsely accused him of attempted sexual assault.
Joseph got tossed into the palace prison. But the warden was so impressed with him that he put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, which eventually included Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker. Next thing he knew, Joseph was interpreting their strange dreams―the cupbearer would get his job back, but the baker would be executed. The cupbearer was thrilled and said he wouldn’t forget Joseph, and the baker… well, poor baker.
The cupbearer got his gig back. But he forgot about Joseph. Until a few years later, when Pharaoh was having nightmares about fat cows and gaunt cows, healthy grain and scorched grain. What did these dreams mean? wondered Pharaoh. His palace magicians couldn’t decipher them. And that’s when the cupbearer remembered Joseph. Pharaoh eagerly sent for Joseph, told him his dreams, and Joseph interpreted them: seven years of abundance were coming, followed by seven years of famine. Food should be saved during the years of abundance to provide for the nation in the years of scarcity.
Pharaoh was impressed, and grateful. Not only did he release Joseph from prison, but Pharaoh made him his right hand man.
So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.”
Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
Not bad for a guy who just a few years earlier had been thrown into a pit and left for dead by his brothers!
In the years that followed, Joseph went on to lead Egypt through the years of plenty and the years of poverty. Because of his guidance, Egypt had food to survive the famine. Not just for them, but also for starving people in other lands―including Joseph’s brothers, who were eventually reunited with him when they came before him, bowing, and requested food. But that’s a story for another time.
See Genesis 37-50 for the full saga.
Joseph’s Journey and Your Joblessness
This story is a storehouse of wisdom for anyone who recently lost their job or is thinking of leaving; anyone who has been in between work for a while or is walking a creative, self-employed path.
Let’s look at four things that Joseph’s journey speaks to when it comes to career transitions: Service, Serendipity, Savings, Skills.
1. Answer the Call to Service
Joseph had everything taken from him. Overnight he went from a stable, secure situation. He had status. Accolades, too (remember that cool coat?). But then it all vanished.
He had to start over.
Kind of like when you lose or leave your job, right?
It was a brutal journey. But notice how he never plays the victim. Instead, he embraces his path. There is a stillness that marks his journey. He’s never striving to make something happen. He trusts that his future his bright. He just shows up for his life, to whatever is in front of him. And he serves.
In each new situation―Potiphar’s household, the palace prison, Pharaoh’s court―Joseph serves. He contributes to the lives of those around him. He adds value.
He’s never asking, what can I get out of this? He’s not scheming. He doesn’t get lost in self-centeredness.
This is remarkable.
It’s also something you are capable of. A way of being that will not only help you sustain the seasons of uncertainty, but also no doubt expand your horizons beyond what you can imagine.
One of my coaching clients has bravely embraced his job loss as an invitation to reset how he shows up in work. Reflecting on his prior role, he realized that in his stress and anxiety, he became controlling. He started to micromanage others. His primary concern became his own standing in the company. Guess what happened? His work got worse. Now—most days—he is accepting this season of instability as an opportunity to reset to service: he knows that he makes his best contribution not when he is self-serving, but when he seeks to serve and support those around them. To help them. Encourage them. Make them better.
Reseting to service is not just about preparing for how you will do what you do next. It’s also the way to operate in the in between, and it may open doors to professional possibilities that you don’t even see right now.
So as you network with others in your job search, don’t approach your relationships as transactions, obsessing about what you will get out of it. Show up ready to serve. Support. Give. Be generous. It will no doubt be noticed by others, lead to new connections, and open up aligned opportunities.
2. Welcome Serendipity
Joseph lost it all. He descended into obscurity. He could easily have viewed it as a dead end.
But instead of shutting down, he opened himself up. He was ready to receive from the divine. And receive he did!
Certainly getting sent to prison wasn’t part of Joseph’s plan. But it ended up being the place of the most serendipitous connection: it’s where he met Pharaoh’s cupbearer (sorry, baker!).
He welcomed the connection. And he served (see #1 above!).
By showing up fully in this difficult, humble context, he was able to align with his destiny. The result: he was put on the fast track to the king’s court. Wild, right?
When you are looking to line up your next gig, it is a mistake to assume that your intellect knows how to make it happen. Sometimes the best things come our way, not by actively searching for them, but by letting them find us.
So don’t just travel the well-trodden paths of career networking events and online job platforms. Let your future surprise you in unlikely places: pull those AirPods out of your ears and actually talk to other parents on the sidelines of your kids soccer games, volunteer in your community, or reach out to the person who’s Substack post caught your attention even though it has nothing to do with your line of work. Who knows what kind of magic might happen?
3. Spend Your Savings
Joseph led Egypt’s effort to save in a season of abundance so that the kingdom would have what it needed when things dried up. When the famine came, he didn’t complain, “Shit, now we have to waste our savings!”
Because THIS IS WHY THEY SAVED IN THE FIRST PLACE: to have the resources when they needed them. The savings were meant to be spent.
If you have savings, why?
Isn’t it for a rainy day? Isn’t it to serve as a cushion when times get tough? Aren’t these reserves there for a moment such as this—when you’ve lost or left your job?
So here’s what you need to do: Accept it!
If you’re used to receiving a regular paycheck, it can feel really scary when the deposits stop coming. But don’t panic. Instead:
Embrace the fact that you are now in a season of famine and in order to survive you’re going to need to rely on the grain in your storehouses. That’s what it is there for. Money is meant to flow. Don’t let your resources rot. That will just keep you stuck.
Let gratitude replace fear—isn’t it amazing that you have savings to support you right now? So many people don’t! Gratitude keeps your running on the life-giving energy of abundance instead of the stagnating fuel of scarcity. This is important now. And this is important for the next stage of your career too.
Receive the gift your former self has given you. If possible, rest a bit before rushing to the next thing! Or take some time to reconnect with your self, your passions, and your family and friends. A friend who recently got laid off is doing exactly this. Yes, he needs to get back to work sometime this year. But this is his son’s last summer before college. So he’s embracing his first few jobless months as a sabbatical of sorts to be with his family and recharge for whatever is next. Honestly, if you have savings to support you, it would be foolish not to make the most of this spacious opportunity!
4. Develop New Skills
It wasn’t a straight line from father’s favorite to king’s counselor for Joseph. On paper, his career didn’t progress up and to the right. If you were to look at his resume, you might think there was a gap or a couple demotions.
But that’s not what was really going on.
Each seemingly downward step prepared him for the next elevated role with increased responsibilities.
Slavery to Potiphar’s attendant.
Prison to Egypt’s second-in-command.
What a journey!
Joseph had what Jack Danger, an engineer and executive, calls a “Pyramid-shaped Career” (a fitting reference here since we are in ancient Egypt with Joseph, no?), in contrast to a tower-shaped career that can be narrow and limiting. It’s when you, “build a broad pyramid of skills that prepare you for nearly anything.”
Danger explains:
The alternative career path is slower at first. You don’t sprint toward short-term impact and status — you develop yourself. You pick up breadth. You grow into highly-leveraged roles but move back down to get more reps at the foundational work.
This builds your career like a pyramid – still tall but with a wide base that enables any senior role you want to grow into, without starting from scratch. You’ll overlap with more of your cross-functional peers, synthesize multi-domain concepts much faster, and have options that some people can only dream of.
Good stuff, right?
As I previously mentioned in Career Disruption & the Middle Way, my in-between years involved all kinds of “odd” jobs—managing a taproom, hospice chaplaincy, a little modeling, and even taxiing someone to distant airport. I won’t be able to tell you until further down the road how exactly I will use the skills I picked up in these settings, but I can at least say that these experiences gave me lots of stories. And that’s always good for a writer!
So remember the next thing you do doesn’t have to be THE thing.
The next thing, be it a step “down” or step “over” might actually be preparing you—equipping you with valuable skills—for THE thing.
Wisdom for the Wilderness Between Workplaces
Who knew that an ancient story had so much to share with us about our career predicament?
Give these four practices a try…
Answer the Call to Service.
Welcome Serendipity.
Spend Your Savings.
Develop New Skills.
…and let me know what you think in the comments below!