About MyCareerTransitions

Since 2005, we've been helping professionals in the Philadelphia region navigate job transition, so you're not alone

Our History 

“It all started with an idea to help others,” recounts My Career Transitions’ founder, Bart Ruff. "My Dad was a successful HR vice president, and I saw him go through a painful job transition late in his career. Then in 2005, when I chose a package and was in transition, I wasn’t sure which direction to take my career—but I knew I could use my marketing and brand skills to build something to help others.”

He did use those skills, honed from years of experience at Stroh’s and HBO, to build the foundation of what would become My Career Transitions. Armed with a strategic plan scribbled on a piece of paper and the tenacity to build a volunteer organization from scratch, Bart started the meetings with four people in the basement of a local library. 

Over time, that core group moved out of the basement. As My Career Transitions (then known simply as Career Transitions) grew, it evolved and underwent multiple transitions itself, including a merger with Company of Friends run by Valeria Maltoni, and then another merger with ASTD’s Philly Transitions run by Theresa Hummel-Krallinger. A name change to My Career Transitions followed to eliminate confusion with other organizations’ names and to coincide with the organization’s new web address. 

“I had a lot of ideas but I also knew I couldn’t build the organization by myself. Eventually other key people joined and helped, people like now-President Annamarie Walter. That’s what My Career Transitions is—ideas, refined and executed by good people, with the core product being information and support for greater Philadelphia professionals in job transition, so they’re not alone. It uniquely fits a need in the community.”

With an expanding network of members and volunteers, finding a large enough venue for regular meetings proved an ongoing challenge, recalls current President Annamarie Walter. She notes that a number of area colleges helped out, allowing the organization to host a meeting from time to time. Still, the group was essentially “homeless” for a year—that is, until Penn State’s Great Valley Campus in Malvern, PA, graciously opened its doors to My Career Transitions in January 2011. That partnership continued through 2024 but our ties have always been close with PSU.

In the past two decades, My Career Transitions has helped ore than 15,000 people navigate job by providing information and resources along with opportunities to network and learn new skills, so they’re not alone in transition.

“My goal was to build My Career Transitions into a brand, an organization that was the best resource for professionals in the greater Philadelphia area who, despite successful careers and education, simply didn’t know how to navigate a downsizing or other career changes—a brand that would be around long after I had moved on to other things,” Ruff says. “Some people help in soup kitchens or other charities, I just happened to pay it forward by building an organization to serve a growing need, with an array of volunteers that carried that mission forward.” 

My Career Transitions achieved his goal—and then some. It has been consistently ranked one of the area’s top networking associations by the Philadelphia Business Journal for over 10 years. Not bad for an idea that was scribbled on a piece of paper by a marketing guy in transition over 20 years ago.

Starting in 2025, My Career Transitions is now operated by Penn State Alumni Career Services with a Steering Committee made up of former MCT Board members. Meetings are available at no cost for both alumni and the community.