Nine years ago I worked at a firm in a strictly administrative capacity (mostly data entry). One day they audited my email and found a few "personal" emails sent through my work email address. These were things like writing my sister and asking her weekend plans, absolutely nothing investment related. I was called in to the office and told I should resign for violating the no personal computer use while on company time policy and so I did.  Now years later, I have decided to get back into the industry, have passed CFP and 65 exams over the past couple years. I recently went through the interview process of a firm and when running my background check they said my u4 was marked "allowed to resign, inappropriate use of corporate communications." Needless to say, they ended negotiations, and said they were not going to proceed anymore. After doing some research, it seems that only investment related offenses should be on your u4. Sending a personal email to my sister was definitely not that. What advice would you give someone in my position? It seems pretty ridiculous to have been passed over for a great job because of this.