While we were discussing compensation packages and benefits, I realized just how important it is that you have a top three pick of them. Going into the business world means busy workdays and a lot of mental effort. I want to make sure that when retirement rolls around, I have good benefits. I have always figured that my top three benefits would be a 401(k), health insurance, and paid time off. However, after our class discussion, I realized just how important it is to have more to those three. For a 401(k), matching is important to maximize the benefit of having one. Health insurance is a given for most people, at least I would assume. Health insurance is a necessity because you never know what might happen. Health issues can arise out of nowhere and it is great to know that you have health insurance just in case. As for paid time off, this would include any type of time off: sick days, vacation days, emergency leave, family/maternity leave, etc. Having the ability to know that my job will give me days off with pay when in situations I need it is a comforting thing. I think that if I couldn’t get these benefits, I would reconsider taking the job as they are extremely important to me. I never considered the importance of also having vision and dental insurance, but since I thankfully haven’t had issues with either, I don’t think they are necessarily important to have right now. Therefore, these are benefits I am most likely to eliminate at this moment in time. Looking into a few jobs, I noticed that some offer life or disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, loans, or even childcare. To me, these are not my top concern right now. In the future, life insurance or childcare might be more important. However, as a recent graduate in the workforce, I would most likely eliminate these for now. Based on class discussion, this seemed to be the case for many of us. Also, some companies offer these benefits and might be good to have anyway so that we can utilize them when we need them in the future.
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