What to put for "reason for leaving" on job history when I left due to my boss being a psychopath?

Due to an illness.

Explore more challenging career opportunities.

or I have always been interest in...............

badmouthing your previous employer is always a bad thing to do. This also goes for badmouthing an ex when dating. It makes you look bad.

What did your old boss do to make you think he was a psychopath? Did he in any way assault you?

Randy Oldman wrote:

What did your old boss do to make you think he was a psychopath? Did he in any way assault you?

Not physically, but verbally many many times. He would hassle people about their religion all the time and literally wander around sometimes just going from one person to the next finding ways to berate them. If he couldn't find something, he'd just make something up like, "Did you make sure to do such and such?!?! You better have, cause if you didn't...!!!" He'd micromanage the crap out of everyone also. I went in to his office with a grad student once because the grad student had a question about a protocol that could have been answered in under five minutes. 45 minutes later we were still in there and the PI was still harassing the student, being very disrespectful, bringing up all kinds of things from the past, etc. He would also sometimes have a wild look in his eyes that genuinely made you unsettled, like he was momentarily insane. I've been around paranoid meth heads, and the look on their face is the same as what was sometimes on this guy's face. I don't think he was on illicit drugs (though he had said he'd been on psychotropic meds before); I just think he was genuinely crazy.

Oh, you worked in a lab. You should have stated that in your original post. In this case, no special mention is needed re, your job history. Your experience is quite typical.

"Creative Differences"

Placed in the Silent Witness Program.

National Security Move.

Got nailed too many times for surfing LR website on the job.

Crazi,

Vent here and get it out of your system. Make NO HINT that you were at all dissatisfied with your previous job. Anything negative at all you say will raise a warning flag about you. Of course this is not fair but you don't want to be placed in the problems in previous job category.

You are interested in exploring better opportunities.

I usually just say "offered a position at (name of subsequent employer)" in response to that question. No need to be too elaborate.

You could always say that a close relative was very ill and required a caregiver. No one would ever pry about that.

How long between jobs were you? Are we talking a few months after you quit?

Welch wrote:

How long between jobs were you? Are we talking a few months after you quit?

I quit, spent a month with my family, then went and traveled for 2.5 months. Because of this, I can't really say I left for another job, and saying I quit to go traveling the world doesn't sound that great either, especially since I had only been working there 9 months. Quitting to go travel the world after you've done several years of something very intense is alright, but not several months.

Given it was a lab at a university, and given it's pretty well understood to those who went to grad school that some labs are blackholes of depression, abuse, and despair, I think alluding to a crappy work environment in an interview wouldn't be much of a strike against me.

I appreciate all the suggestions so far. "Creative differences" would be hilarious given it was a job in science using standard protocols. I'd almost want to use that just to see the expression on people's faces.

lie

relocation usually works

family emergency required indefinite relocation ,

turned out to be temporary/ good way to hide- my cat died and I was depressed/went surfing/bong salesman that summer, type stuff too

"Personal"

No one ever asks anyways.

Write, "Boss was a nutjob" in BOLD TYPE. That will get your resume to the top of the list. Everyone can relate. Your honesty will land you the position.

"My balls got deflated and I needed some time off".

Two words: Hemorrhoid surgery