Divorce is the full-time job no one trained you for. It hijacks your focus, drains your energy, and throws your schedule (and identity) into chaos. While you’re managing custody schedules, digging up financial documents, attending therapy sessions, and building your new life, one thing quietly slips through the cracks: your experience capital.
💡 Experience Capital = The professional currency you build over a lifetime. It’s the skills, wisdom, and credibility that help you grow your career and increase your earning power. During major life transitions (Divorce!) it stalls or shrinks, slowing your career momentum.
💡 Let’s talk about what no one teaches us → how to protect your career momentum, your professional identity, and your future income while you’re in survival mode.
What is experience capital?
Experience Capital is so much more than the details of your resume, it’s a combination of many things:
✅ Everything you have learned (professional skill set, mistakes, achievements, wisdom)
✅ Your reputation and visibility to others in your field
✅ Your ability to communicate your unique value
✅ Everything big and small that makes you, YOU. It’s your career mojo, work cred, professional magic, streets smarts + skill set ✨
✅ It’s what fuels promotions, job changes, career pivots, and pay increases! And when life is messy/complicated/unsteady, it’s what keeps your career afloat.
The quiet career cost of divorce
Divorce doesn’t always show up as a big, dramatic interruption in your career. Often, it’s the quieter shifts (think missed opportunities, dialed-back ambition, constant emotional drain, reduced hours to manage logistical nightmares) that slowly pull you off your professional path.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re losing ground in your career during a major life transition, you are not imagining it. We believe you and you’re not alone. Divorce can erode your experience capital, AND it doesn’t have to.
Here’s what you what you can do to protect it while you’re still in the thick of it.👇
Make your current role work harder for you
Get intentional. In whatever role you are in (even if it feels “beneath” your experience), get strategic about how you spend your time –
✅ Ask to lead a project. No matter how small, it matters.
✅ Continue to show up in the ways you can. Attend the meeting (even if you don’t lead it), reply to the group message, check in with a mentor or colleague (even briefly). These tiny acts keep you from drifting off the radar. Presence is power.
✅ Volunteer for something. Cross train, shadow another department, show someone the ropes.
✅ Write it all down! Track what you are learning and achieving weekly and build “your portfolio”
No matter how small these steps seem to you, they add up! And they become your collection of skills, achievements, and unique offerings that support your future moves.
Translate your experiences into skill sets
Ready for a quiet power move?!
Create a “Wins and Skills” log 👉 Start a log of all your amazing things – new skills you’re developing, wins you’ve had, things people praise or thank you for, obstacles you’ve overcome. Even when it feels small, log it!
These steps (no matter how big or small they seem to you in the moment) keep your confidence alive and will give you the language to use later when you’re ready to make a career move.
Protect your network
During divorce, one of the hardest things can be reaching out to others and staying connected. And professionally, it’s one of the most important things you can do.
💫 Nurture your professional relationships.
Send a short “thinking of you” message or ask a colleague how they are handling a new challenge. Grab a virtual coffee, attend a webinar, comment on posts. These connections are your safety net, and they matter just as much as your skill set.
Make peace with this maintenance phase of life
💗 Perhaps the hardest thing to do 👉 Make peace with exactly where you are and release the “shoulds.” This might not be your growth season. And that is okay. Remind yourself: Not backsliding is a win. Holding your ground IS progress.
Now is not the time to launch, leap, or lead. Now is the time for staying connected to your value, your voice, and your peace.
🔥 Pro-Tip 👉 Check out this great piece on radical acceptance with tips on how to do it!
When you’re ready to grow again
Divorce shakes your foundation, but it does not diminish or erase your value. And it definitely doesn’t mean your career dreams are over. Keep your ambition! Keep your seat at the table!
And when you’re ready to launch, leap, or lead, you will be prepared because you stayed intentional and didn’t give up on yourself. You stayed present, you tracked your worth, and you protected your experience capital. You are not starting over, you are starting from wisdom.💗
Want to learn more about building your career to match your post-divorce life??! Check out our latest convo with the incredible Rachel Spekman, Career Strategist + Therapist!
Ready to dive in and build the career of your dreams?! 👏 👏