Question: There are two common uses for the English word **experience:**

* the specific sense, as in "skydiving was an interesting experience"
* the more general sense, as in "I have the job experience you're looking for"

The former is a description of the immediate process of living through something, perceiving it, etc. Where as the latter is typically more focused on the knowledge or expertise gained by having participated in something. They're not cleanly separate, of course, since the former typically leads to the latter.

Whenever I've looked up *experience* in an English-Russian dictionary, they always give **опыт** as the translation—often the only one. My sense is that that word is the best translation for the *second* usage above. Is it also the proper term for the *first* usage, or would **переживание** be better for that?

I've also noticed, on [Linguee](https://www.linguee.com/english-russian/search?query=experience) for example, that *переживание* is indicated to be less frequently used. Is that because *опыт* meets the same need, or because the second usage above is a more common topic of conversation among Russians? I wouldn't normally wonder that, but in this case it does conform to my sense of the cultural differences between, say, America (whence I come) and Russia. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

Answer: 
*Переживание* (literally, "living-through") is quite a set way to translate the English phrase "emotional experience". I can't think of any other way for it to be used to translate "experience" outside this context.

However, your gut feeling is right, Russian *опыт* usually only applies to knowledge and expertise indeed. "Skydiving was an interesting experience" is best translated as *прыгать с парашютом было очень интересно*.
*Опыт* and *переживание* not only appeal to different parts of human consciousness (*опыт* is for logic, *переживание* is for emotions); they also differ in their time aspect. *Опыт* is something valuable because you can make use of that experience in the future (i.e. in your example with skydiving, you may have understood that you are more brave than you thought), *переживание* is a value-in-itself, the process of experiencing is (often highly) valuable or, in some contexts, relating to emotionally or spiritually sensitive experiences.

By the way, it's technically possible to say *переживание* about skydiving. However, it will be highly stylistically marked: people would think that is a deliberate, well-informed breach of lexical valence.
Most likely, the perceived meaning maybe that of you trying to convey that you were scared to death during the skydive.