What reason should I give for leaving my last job?

Question

I worked at a bank where I was miserable for two years, and a month ago I got fed up and gave them 2 weeks notice. I don't have another job yet and I'm having difficulty with what to tell potential employers my reason for leaving was. The truth is my manager played favorites, and treated me unfairly. She would make inappropriate comments about my weight and falsely accuse me of being anorexic. I worked 40 hours a week when I was only supposed to work 25, but she refused to give me full time employement because she didn't want to pay benefits. The branch's sales goals were completely unreasonable and 50% of our performance was based on meeting these goals. We were expected to open as many new accounts in a town of 20,000 as branches in downtown Chicago, population 3 million. She denied me raises not once but twice. In two years I got a whopping 30 cent increase. I was a good employee. I had exceptional customer service satisfaction scores and was extremely reliable. What do I say?

Answer 1

Just say you left for personal reasons, you just didn't enjoy the wok.
Don't go into the details about the manager, just say (if asked) you were given additional responsibilies without any inrease in pay.
Complaining about her might seem you have difficulty with supervisors. So, just be objective.

You left so you could spend your time looking for a suitable job. Right? Right!

Good luck.

Answer 2

Start by saying "It was time for a new challenge." Then talk about your positives, whatever you do, don't talk about playing favorites and other stuff. Noone wants to hear that. You sound like you have a lot to offer, make sure your prospective employer knows it.

Answer 3

You don't want to burn bridges or make your previous employer look bad to your new employer. I've done this a lot too, and usually the reasons I give are "Moved to a different town", "Looking to get into a different company" "Looking to get into _________(whatever the company you're applying for does)"