FAQ

Anyone interested in an easy and convenient way to make a huge impact on students in North Carolina can apply to be a Career Coach with F4K. Encourage your friends, family and co-workers to sign up as Career Coaches as well. For more information go to About F4K or email us at info@F4K.org.

What happens if I check “Yes, I would be interested in answering students’ questions regarding my company?”

You become a company contact when you offer to answer students’ questions about your company. As a company contact you are a Career Coach who can also communicate news about your company.

I signed up yesterday and can’t sign in. Why?
Futures for Kids requires a criminal history background check for the past 7 years, as well as a North Carolina Sex Offender check, on all Career Coaches. Once you sign up to be a Career Coach you must wait approximately one week to have your criminal history background check completed. Then you will receive an email from F4K letting you know you are now activated.

Why do I have to undergo a criminal background check?
We do this to ensure that our web portal is a safe environment for our kids. Applicants with minor offenses (e.g. traffic and other violations) will be accepted. Applicants with more serious offenses are evaluated according to internal guidelines. All results are confidential between the applicant and F4K.

Where do I post my bio?
Once you log in to the Partners section click on MY ACCOUNT. Enter your bio under the General Information section. Don’t forget to hit the save button in the lower right hand corner. Please post your bio so that students can learn more about your career background.

How do I change my user id and/or password?
Once you log in to the Partners section click on MY ACCOUNT. Scroll down and you will see the section titled Login Information. You can change it here. Don’t forget to hit the save button in the lower right hand corner.

How do I change what career discussion boards I’m on?
Once you log in to the Partners section click on MY DISCUSSIONS. Click remove on the right hand side of the board to remove yourself from that board. To add additional careers, look for the link that says “Click here to add a Discussion Board” (at the bottom left of the page) and choose a career discussion board to connect to. If the career titles listed are not pertinent to your current company (I was a dancer and now I work at Glaxo,) uncheck the Employer Relevant box and click ADD.

What is a discussion board?
A discussion board is a communication tool that allows one individual to post a comment or question online and allows others to reply over time.

How do I know when there is a new posting to one of my boards?
You will receive an email from F4K at 4 o’clock letting you know if you have a posting and identifying the board where the posting resides.

Why do I receive an email notification every day?

When a new message is posted Career Coaches will receive an email notifying them that there is a new posting on their discussion board. After the initial post you will receive a daily reminder until you log in to that discussion board.

How do I find a new posting?
Log in to the Partners section and click on the MY DISCUSSIONS button. The discussion board with the new posting will be in bold and tagged by a yellow circle with an exclamation point in the center. Click on that board and you will be taken to the discussion board that has the new posting. The latest posting will be in bold.

I received an email notification regarding a new posting, but I can’t find it and nothing is bold. Why?

New posts will remain bold for three days by default. If it has been longer than three days since you received your first email notification or since you have checked the board you can go to the top of the page (just under the discussion board title) and change the time frame for new posts to be shown in bold. You can increase the time frame up to 28 days depending on how recently you have checked the board or how often you think you can log in.

How do I best answer a student’s question?

See the Guidelines section on the F4K Partner’s Page for more information. Be candid. Provide them with the type of information you would find useful when career searching. If you have any questions feel free to “Contact F4K.”

How do I report inappropriate activity occurring on the discussion boards?

Click the “Contact F4K button.” In the questions/comments box tell us which discussion board contains the inappropriate activity, the date of the posting and the username of the person who made the post. F4K will notify the educator if necessary and delete the posting.

How do I respond to repetitive questions?

If you have answered the same question before feel free to refer a student to an earlier post. You can also encourage students to visit the Career Details section where they can find in depth information about a particular career. (For example, salary information, job outlook, required education, appropriate courses to take, etc.) You can log in as a student on the F4K site to see the kind of information the Career Details provide.

I’ve been a Career Coach for three months now and haven’t received a single post. Why?
The current trend shows the majority of students signing up under the Arts Education, Commercial and Artistic Production and the Business Technology pathways. The more technical careers may not have a lot of student interest at this time. Also, students who are typically inclined to more technical careers may not be as communicative or comfortable discussing their career interests. We suggest making an initial posting to introduce yourself and provide a basic summary of your career.

What is the CAREER COACHES ONLY discussion board?
The “Career Coaches Q&A” in the MY DISCUSSIONS section is a place to ask questions, offer suggestions and share tips with other coaches about the Career Coach program. You can also use this board to contact F4K.

What is the difference between communicating and posting a comment?

Only Company Contacts can use the COMMUNICATE feature. When you are communicating you are creating a message to send to a student or a group of students via the IN THE NEWS feature or their individual message boards. This is done through the COMMUNICATE section on the Partners site. Company Contacts may want to communicate information about apprenticeships, internships, job shadowing and other events of interest to students within their company.

Posting a comment occurs on the discussion boards. You post a comment when you are responding to questions and comments students and Career Coaches post on the discussion boards in the MY DISCUSSIONS section. All Career Coaches can post a comment.

What is a Company Page and what are the advantages of a company page?
Companies are encouraged to have their own page on the F4K website enabling students to access information about that company. The advantages of a company page include being able to highlight jobs at your company, having a discussion board where students can talk to someone about your company and bringing attention to your company as a whole. The company pages can be viewed on the Student site in the COMPANIES section. To create a company page check YES “I would be interested in answering students’ questions regarding my company” when registering as a Career Coach, or contact F4K.

I’m a company contact, how do I manage the list of careers on our company page?

In the POSTING section on the Partners site you can post a career. Include the career title and either choose a description from the current F4K career library or create a custom description. These postings appear on your company page and provide additional information and details about careers within your company along with the qualifications a student would need to pursue that career.

I want to see what the students see. Can I explore F4K as a Student?

Yes! Log in as you normally do and click on the ACCESS STUDENTS SITE HERE link on the right side of the PARTNERS homepage. You will be taken directly to the STUDENTS site where you can explore F4K as the students do.