You have a short window and defaults are not optimal
When you start a job you usually get 30 days or so to enroll in benefits, and if you do nothing you get a default that is rarely the best choice. Read the benefits guide, use the enrollment tool, and ask HR the questions below before the deadline.
Health insurance
You will pick a plan — often a choice between a higher-premium plan with lower out-of-pocket costs and a lower-premium high-deductible plan (HDHP). If you are young and healthy, an HDHP paired with an HSA (below) is often the cheaper total. Check whether your doctors are in-network and what the deductible and out-of-pocket maximum are — that maximum is your worst case for the year.
HSA and FSA
An HSA (Health Savings Account) goes with an HDHP: you contribute pre-tax money, it rolls over year to year, it is yours if you leave, and it can be invested — it is one of the best tax-advantaged accounts available. An FSA (Flexible Spending Account) is pre-tax money for health costs that mostly does not roll over ("use it or lose it"), so contribute only what you are confident you will spend.
Retirement — get the match, at least
If the employer offers a 401(k) match (e.g. "100% of the first 4%"), contributing at least enough to get the full match is free money — a guaranteed 100% return on that portion. Set the contribution from day one. A Roth 401(k) option (post-tax now, tax-free later) is often the better choice when your income is at its lowest, which it is now.
PTO and leave
Understand how paid time off accrues, whether sick and vacation are separate, whether unused time carries over or is paid out, and the parental-leave policy even if it is not relevant yet. Know the rules before you plan a trip.
The rest
Life and disability insurance (the employer-paid baseline is usually fine to start; disability coverage matters more than people think), any tuition assistance (relevant if you might do a part-time master's), commuter benefits, and an employee assistance program (free confidential counseling — worth knowing exists). A financial-wellness coach or a fee-only advisor can walk through your specific choices.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.