Career change from engineering to accountancy

Hi all,

I've been trying to undergo a career change from engineering to accountancy for about 13 months now.

I've got a 2:2 in Mechanical Engineering (Nottingham University) and an MSc in Engineering (55%) from Southampton University.

The problem I've got is that if I apply to a big firm then they want a 2:1 (regardless of university or course which I find incredible) and if I go to a smaller firm they are concerned that I'm over qualified (i.e. 4 years engineering degree from top tier engineering universities), I've also just turned 27 which probabaly also makes them think I'll be looking to move on quickly.

I've been doing temp work for 13 months solid (purchase ledger, finance assistant and currently accounts assistant). Not that money is everything but £10/hr isn't exactly great and I've self-funded/self-studied my way through 7 ACCA exam passes in the last 12 months (I think the pace that I've gone through the ACCA exams may be making people think that I'm too ambitious).

Anyway that's it really, I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on the best route ahead - my preference is to go through industry rather than practice but would be happy to stick out practice for a couple of years until I'm qualified (I'm not so keen on client-facing work). (I'm finding that in industry the large firms want a 2:1 and the small firms want six-form leavers who work there way slowly through AAT, with nothing inbetween).

Also, I ran a successful business at uni but I've taken this off the CV because I still run the business (now takes up <15 minutes per week) - it causes me to crash at interview because they worry that I'm understating the time it takes up, they also worry that I am too entrepreneurial (didn't know that was a bad thing!) - so for my degree my CV just shows a rather average degree grade with no mitigating explanation.

A levels were A in Economics, B in Maths, B in Physics.

Any ideas would be gratefully received!

Many thanks,

Stu