OK, so.

[porphyrin]

Having never held a 'real job', I need some advice.

Do those sound like /poor/ fringe benefits or *good* fringe benefits?

1. BCBS coverage for the entire family, with any visits to any doctors at any of the St. Cloud Medical Group clinics being gratis (imaging other than plain X-ray is not gratis, but is covered by BCBS)

2. 401 K which you are eligible for after your first year (okay, 17 months because of the enrollment period) with 12 funds to choose from, and the employer matches 75 cents to the dollar, fully vested after 6 years (0%, 20%, 40$, etc), plus any quarterly profits being placed in the 401K after the first year

3. Life insurance-- 20K worth.

4. Disability insurance-- 4-6K of portable insurance and then non-portable to 65% of your income.

5. All moving expenses paid for.

6. 5 paid sick days. 16 vacation days. 4 Continuing Medical Education days (count as vacation).

7. $3K toward continuing medical education expenses.

8. $1K to cover your choice of dental & optical plans for the year.

Maybe I'm just razzle-dazzled by my first job offer ever?

Comments

Benefits

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations! Job offers are exciting, aren't they?
Health coverage looks very generous.
401k vesting time seems long.
Life insurance is on the low side, but that can easily be supplemented, and should be since you are the primary wage earner.
Another point is the sick time. As you are a parent, if you need to stay home with Roo, can you use your sick time? I know that for David and myself we use quite a bit of sick time not so much for ourselves, but to stay home with the kids and five days sounds on the low side to cover that.
Vacation time sounds good, but does the 16 vacation day include paid holidays? I'm just asking because I think most places will start you with ~two weeks vacation plus around seven to ten paid holidays. However, since you can be full time at four days a week, this may be less of an issue.
Education money is important and $3k sounds low if you intend to take much for school. Right now David is taking about 6 graduate credits a year through the U and the bill is larger than our $5k limit.
Since we have an HMO that covers most expenses, I can't comment on the coverage for dental and optical other than to say the opticals usually don't cover all the expenses.
And the malpractice insurance question is an important one to ask.

Take care and good luck.

Heathah

Re: Benefits

[(Anonymous)]

Something else in benefits also occurred to me. What are their policies on maternity leave? This may not be something you're worried about, but I've taken full advantage of it myself for two children. Is there any pay coverage, how long can you be out, etc.? For me temporary disability covered 6 weeks of maternity time off and then I could use sick time or go without pay for up to 12 weeks. There's the FMLA that requires companies bigger than, I think 20 employees, to allow people to take this much, but if the practice is smaller than this you could have some issues.

At any rate, take care.

Heathah