leaving due to conflict with boss - what to say at interviews?

[MizZan]

Am resigning a senior level position (professional services firm) mainly due to a very difficult relationship with manager.

is it the kiss of death to even mention this in interviews for next role? Am sure I will be asked why I left previous position. Better just to say something vague (not sure this will fly, at this level...)?

any advice welcome! other than to just stick it out till I have a new position - not an option.

Professional differences of opinion on management strategy and you were looking for a different challenge anyway?

I would try to think of other true reasons why the new role appeals to you more and focus on those as your reasons.

Best not to mention this at all since you will in all probability be interviewed by your would-be manager in the new role. Nobody wants to work with a difficult employee and they have no way of knowing who was at fault. You would be instantly a suspect.

Come up with some other plausible and credible reason for leaving.

Rule of thumb is you don't diss your ex-employer to your new one.

100% agree with previous posters. I work for a large professional services firm. You wouldn't actually get an interview for us if there was any hint you were leaving under a cloud (I appreciate in some cases this may be grossly unfair, but it is what it is). There must be some differentiator between your current role and the future that you could say instead?

Are you resigning without a new job to go to so you are worried how to explain a gap on your cv? Can you do some contract / interim / freelance work for a while to fill the gap and say you left / are leaving to try out interim work as you think it will be more challenging etc. Then if you want to in a year (?) or so you can start looking for permanent work again and say it wasn't what you expected and prefer permanent work.