Job Dismissal With Non-Disclosure Agreement: Disclose Or Not Disclose To CFA® Institute?

Short version: should I disclose the circumstances of my dismissal from my last job in the professional conduct section of the exam application if I signed a non-disclosure/non-disparagement agreement with my previous employer when I left? I'm concerned that if I disclose to the CFA® 
institute, they will contact my previous employer to get their side of the story, which would reveal that I had violated the terms of my NDA and my previous employer could hold me liable for my severance pay plus interest. However, I'm also worried that if I don't disclose the allegations made against me (even though in my eyes I'm not guilty of any code violation, and I'm not even sure that the allegations would count under the CFA® 
I's definition of "professional misconduct" even if the were true), the fact that I withheld the situation from them could be held against me in the future by the CFA® 

In a nutshell, I was working at a financial services firm, had been put on formal written notice shortly before my dismissal, and the allegations in this notice were in large part performance related (eg poor time management, etc). My job didn't directly involve handling securities in any way, and I wasn't accused of anything like fraud/embezzlement/mishandling of client information. My employer then tried to have my dismissal classified as a firing in order to deny me unemployment benefits, so I explained the situation in an appeal to the state labor department, and ultimately won the appeal as my employer didn't provide sufficient evidence. These are the key details, but I can provide more if you want.

4 Comments
 

Is CFA asking about job dismissals in your past or evidence of professional misconducts as it bears on your ethics?

 

What does this have to do with the CFAI?

You failed ethics, didn't you...

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

(I don't think you have to tell the CFAI anything)

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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Aspernatur quaerat et at neque nostrum nobis. Minima et iste vitae ea sint a amet. Exercitationem voluptas inventore est expedita modi.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

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