[HTXAccountant]

I have a Masters in accounting, and honestly, it is one of the worst decisions I have made in my life.

Long-story short, after a 5-year long struggle with my major, I graduated with my Masters this past spring. I decided to take a few months off post-graduation to spend time with family and reassess my life plans, and ended up really changing my goals and expectations. I know now that all I really want in a job is to be comfortable at it and able to do it. Money is not really an issue for me, since I live with my parents and do not really incur any expenses outside of basic survival needs. Plus, I actually *enjoy* doing the boring/routing/repetitive type of work.

The problem is that my resume doesn’t reflect that.

I did an internship last year at a Big 6 public accounting firm, and I held two part-time jobs (in tax and audit, respectively) during the last year of my degree, all of which I have listed in my experiences. Most detrimentally–to me, in applying for these “lower level” positions that I actually want–is the fact that I have a big fat Masters in Accounting plastered on the top line of my resume. Recruiters seem to assume that I want the ambitious, fast-track jobs, which is completely NOT me, and at the same time, don’t even consider me for “lower-level” positions.

(Something to note–I am not actually “good” at accounting, nor do I have any passion for it. I completed a Masters simply because it was what I had set out to do when I got into my program, and I felt that any less would be a waste (it also “saved” me one year of schooling). The whole time, I just thought of accounting as another subject I had to struggle and study for, and I never really accepted that it would be what I would do for the rest of my life. All I really want to do now is get a job that I can do, save up money, and return to school when I’ve saved enough to pursue what I actually want to do.)

Anyhow, my main question is: if I am looking for a “low-level” position as an accounting clerk or an assistant, but seem to be “overqualified” for those jobs on paper, is there a way that I can trim my resume to better suit my goals? I’m almost considering taking my Masters degree off completely, but that would leave a gap year (and I don’t want to be disingenuous either).

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!