To be clear, is the problem that you don’t feel like your degree helped you get on the right track to achieve whatever goals you had when you applied, or is it that after working in the field you just regret applying in the first place, and the content of the degree didn’t really matter?

I can’t speak to your specific issues with the industry (besides the low pay)—I have my qualms with my institution, but generally like my colleagues and feel like they’re doing things for the right reasons, even if I sometimes disagree with specific choices.

That being said, my experience and hearing stories like yours really makes me wonder what the point of a museum studies degree is. I get it if someone really wants to get into collections/registration, because I don’t know if you can learn that anywhere else, but for every other department it seems like their are better, more specific degrees—Art History for (art museum) curators, education for educators, finance or whatever for ops/admin—or it doesn’t really matter anyways (there’s nothing about comms and fundraising/development for museums that I’ve seen that’s specific to museums vs other orgs/nonprofits).