[Ep. 54] What Maternity Leave Really Cost Me + Sparking Innovation at Work w/ Neta Retter

Neta has one of the coolest jobs I know. She leads workplace innovation—having scaled Meta’s internal hackathons globally, and now serving as Director of Innovation at Okta. But her path wasn’t always smooth.Despite a decade of success as a hardware engineer at Broadcom, returning to the workforce after maternity leave brought crushing interview experiences that led her to pivot industries entirely.In this episode of MoneyBites, Neta shares how she reinvented herself, built her dream career, and redefined success on her own terms. We talk career, money, and resilience—and how she turned setbacks into innovation.00:41 What is innovation?02:15 Day in the life of Director of innovation04:12 How to drive meaningful innovation at work07:22 Is innovation at risk?12:55 The importance of mangers15:57 Balancing career and motherhood 18:19 Brutal reality of coming back to work after maternity leave21:58 Interview advice after career gap28:35 Working at Meta31:29 Lessons learned in boundary setting35:09 Career advice for reaching director level