The importance of previous firm-specific human capital (FSHC) is heightened during technological change as developing new innovations requires varied sources of knowledge (e.g., from other sectors). So far, research has not explained the effect of the intensity and breadth of inventors’ previously accumulated knowledge on innovation outputs at the current employer. In this paper, we study how 1144 inventors working with autonomous vehicle technologies in Sweden used their prior work experience at their current employer. Our findings reveal previous work experience increases the use of inventors' intensity and breadth of prior technological knowledge (i.e. backward patent citations) that leads to valuable new technologies (i.e. forward patent citations). This paper provides insights into the indirect effect of inventors’ work experience, which results from the intensity of knowledge and not the direct work experience per se. This paper bridges the human capital and innovation literatures by demonstrating the value of employees with prior work experience.